Evan Wolfson

A survey by the respected Gallup poll organization reports a stunning jump in support for legal recognition of the marriages of same-sex couples and “the first time” in its own tracking history on the issue that a majority of Americans “believe same-sex marriage should be recognized by the law as valid.”

The poll was conducted May 5-8 of 1,018 adults nationwide and its findings were released Friday, May 20. Of those polled, 53 percent said they think marriages between same-sex couples “should” be recognized by the law, with the same rights as “traditional marriages;” 45 percent said they “should not;” 2 percent had no opinion. The margin of error is plus or minus four points.

The 53 percent who support legal recognition for the marriages of same-sex couples represented a nine-point jump over last year’s 44 percent –the biggest jump in Gallup’s 16 years of asking a same-sex marriage question.

“The trend toward marriage equality is undeniable– and irreversible,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese, in a statement released May 20. “Marriage for committed, loving couples continues to be an important value of the American people.”

Evan Wolfson, head of the national Freedom to Marry organization, said the poll “reaffirms that Americans have been listening…or, as President Obama would put it, ‘evolving.’”

Gallup has tracked the evolution since 1996, when only 27 percent of Americans supported legal recognition for the marriages of same-sex couples. By 2004, when Massachusetts became the first state to enable same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses, 42 percent supported legal recognition for the marriages of same-sex couples. Gallup said that 2004 level “stayed at roughly that level through last year.” Gallup also made a change, in 2006, in how it worded the question. From 1996 until 2007, it asked, “Do you think marriages between homosexuals should or should not be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages?” Beginning in 2007, it asked “Do you think marriages between same-sex couples should or should not be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages?” But the change in wording did not seem to make a significant difference in results at that time.

Gallup noted that, in the past year, Congress passed a bill to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” something its polls indicated Americans had supported since 2005. But there have been many other changes that could explain the uptick, too. In August of 2010, a federal judge in San Francisco, in probably what is the most widely publicized gay-related cases in history, ruled California’s ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional. Just one month earlier, a federal judge in Boston had—in two cases—struck down a section of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). And marriage equality laws took effect in Washington, D.C., and New Hampshire, bringing to five the number of states with marriage equality laws. Then, in February of this year, the Obama administration announced that it could no longer defend DOMA as passing constitutional muster at all levels in all courts.

Gallup noted there was an increase in support among Democratic and Independent voters polled, but not among Republicans or older Americans. It said “fewer than 4 in 10 Republicans and older Americans” support recognizing marriages of same-sex couples.

“Republicans in particular seem fixed in their opinions,” said Gallup, noting that “there was no change at all in their support level this year, while independents’ and Democrats’ support jumped by double-digit margins.”

A Pew Research Center poll involving 1,504 adults nationally, registered a new high in support for allowing gays to marry in March. While 46 percent told the Pew Research Center they opposed allowing gays to marry, 45 percent said they favored doing so—a two-point jump in the space of six months. (Nine percent said they were unsure. The margin of error was plus or minus three points.)