In coverage leading up to and reporting on the Supreme Court’s decisions last week removing some obstacles to gay marriage, a persistent meme has been that Americans in the last few years are increasingly OK with same-sex marriage. The evidence cited is public opinion polling, like this Gallup poll that shows Americans’ acceptance rolling over the halfway mark about a year ago.
But a new white paper from Rice University’s Portraits of American Life Study, which looks at the religious attitudes of the exact same group of 1,294 randomly sampled Americans captured in 2006 and again last year, reports that opinions not only aren’t changing, but positions are hardening. [cont.]
Michael Todd, Pacific Standard
Recent polls: Same-sex marriage