Gallup first polled Americans about gays and lesbians in 1977 — when the U.S. gay rights movement was still in its infancy, and openly gay politician Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Gay rights activists at the time enjoyed momentum from the 1969 riots at Stonewall Inn in New York City — an uprising against police raids on gay bars, the 50th anniversary of which the LGBT community celebrates this month — and had not yet endured the AIDS crisis that would later kill many LGBT people.
But while the movement was young and hopeful at the time, Americans held very different views about gay people than they do today. CONT.
Justin McCarthy, Gallup