… For some time, PRRI has asking Americans about same-sex marriage, laws protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination, and allowing businesses to refuse service to LGBTQ people because of their religious beliefs. The top-line results could hardly be clearer: In the latest data, 68 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage, 79 percent support protections against discrimination, and 66 percent oppose allowing service refusals. …
Even if there’s still opposition to LGBTQ rights among conservatives, that opposition is declining over time. In 2014, 35 percent of Republicans supported same-sex marriage, while in 2021, 48 percent did.
But to engineer a political backlash, you don’t actually need to win converts to your cause. Often, all you need is to persuade the people who haven’t changed their minds as the world changes around them to get more upset. Which is what we’re seeing right now. CONTINUED
Paul Waldman, Washington Post
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