Support for marriage equality dips amid the culture wars

A new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) shows support for marriage equality has dipped from a high water mark in 2022.

For the first time since PRRI began tracking nationwide support for three key LGBTQ+ rights policies — nondiscrimination protections, religiously-based service refusals, and same-sex marriage — the group found a decline in support for LGBTQ+ rights across all three measures.

Related:

Support for gay relationships dropped drastically among Republicans

A majority of Republicans now don’t believe that same-sex relationships are morally acceptable.

In 2023, two-thirds of Americans (67%) registered support for marriage equality, down from 69% in 2022. In 2014, as the case granting marriage equality nationwide made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, 54% of Americans supported same-sex marriage.

Stay connected to your community

Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter.

Daily

Weekly

Good News

While the survey revealed older Americans are less supportive of marriage equality than younger people, support among Gen Z and millennials has dropped from a high of 79% in 2018 to 71% today.

Geographically, a majority in all 50 states supports marriage equality, from a high of 83% in Washington State and Massachusetts to a bare majority of 51% in Arkansas.

Majorities of most religious traditions favor marriage equality, but support for same-sex marriage has declined among some religious groups, including Hispanic Catholics (75% in 2022 to 68% in 2023).

Part of the drop in support for same-sex marriage and other LGBTQ+ rights can be seen in correlation with favorable views of Christian nationalism in the United States.

PRRI’s Christian nationalism scale sorts Americans into four categories according to their views of the relationship between Christianity, American identity, and the U.S. government. Among adherents of Christian nationalism, just 22% support same-sex marriage, compared with 93% of Christian nationalism rejectors.  

Rejecters are nearly unanimous (93%) in their support for laws that protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination in housing, employment, and accommodation, while among adherents, a majority (52%) oppose nondiscrimination laws.

The survey reinforced other data showing a rise in LGBTQ+ identity among Americans. As of 2023, one in ten Americans identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community, including more than one in five Americans (22%) ages 18-29.

More than seven in ten LGBTQ+ Americans belong to the two youngest generational cohorts. Twenty-four percent of Gen Z adults and 15% of millennials identify as LGBTQ+. A plurality of LGBTQ+ Americans are Democrats (46%) and nearly six in ten consider themselves liberal (58%).

A majority of LGBTQ+ Americans are religiously unaffiliated (52%), a number nearly twice the rate of religiously unaffiliated Americans overall (27%).

By state, the percentage of residents who identify as LGBTQ+ ranges from a low of 4% in Alabama and South Carolina to a high of 16% in New Mexico. In red states, alone, the percentage of the population under 30 identifying as LGBTQ+ increased by more than ten points, from 9% in 2016 to 20% in 2023.