A new Gallup poll released Monday shows that opposition to marriage equality has continued to fall, and is currently at 53%. When Gallop first asked the question in 1996, opposition was at 68%, which is a 15 point difference. Support, now at 44%, has jumped 17 points from the original 27%. The highest it’s been was 46% in 2007.

Check out these findings from the Gallup poll.



Gallup also found that 81% of people who reporting having no religious affiliation were in support of marriage equality.

It’s probably no big surprise that those who are most in favor of marriage equality are those who are Liberal Democrats who live on the east or west coast, and whom have no religious affiliation or for whom religion is not a large/important part of their lives. Conversely, those who are most opposed to marriage equality are largely Conservative Republicans living in the South or Midwest and for whom religion is a significant part of their lives.

The fact that we’re making progress is encouraging, but statistics aren’t enough. Action is what matters. People demanding that their Senators and Representatives support equal rights legislation, and people voting themselves in support of equality on ballot measures/initiatives, is what will really bring change. We cannot rely on encouraging poll numbers alone. We’ve seen with DADT and ENDA that overwhelming public support does not guarantee that our leaders will act.

As David Badash writes for Change.org:

While these numbers merely maintain the conventional wisdom that a majority of  Americans will support marriage equality within the next decade, we have to ask  ourselves, and our political leaders, if this is good enough, or fast enough. More  importantly, how much longer after a majority of Americans ultimately support  marriage equality — and they will, in time — will we see the will of the majority  translate into legal protections and social acceptance for all LGBT Americans?

David Mailloux of Join the Impact Massachusetts wrote a really wonderful blog for Equality Across America, that I think excellently expresses the need for action. Here are a few excerpts:

When the Mormon Church rode into towns all over California with their fat  wallets and their insistent and hateful religious philosophies, and more than five  million people bought into it and voted away marriage equality in November of  2008, something blew up. Stonewall 2.0 emerged and hundreds of thousands of  people took to the streets with an incomparable disgust and passion for change on  November 15, 2008. In the weeks and months that followed, though, those same  people who nearly rioted in streets all over the nation went back to their regular  everyday working worlds. By the time Pride weekend emerged in 2009, four more  states had legalized same-sex marriage, but it was the same few people who cared  and blogged about it. 

What will it take before we wake up and realize that, without more people to care,  without more people to work, without more people to step up to the plate and take  risks and take action, we are going to lose? Some of us toss a modest three-figure  sum to the HRC every year, thinking that is our contribution. Do we pay attention,  though?

 We need to wake up and listen to the voices of our community, to the leadership  who have put their lives on the line for our freedoms. Because if every one of us  put just a couple of hours each week into that which matters for everyone’s rights  and protections, our voices combined will be overwhelming. They will stop traffic  and silence our naysayers and create an undeniable strength from one coast to the  other. The rallies that followed the passage of Proposition 8 will be a whisper in  comparison.

 When we do this, we will be heard. And we will win.

What do you think needs to be done to finally repeal DADT and to finally pass ENDA? More importantly, what will YOU do to get it done? It won’t happen without you!

~ Samantha