Though Republicans in some positions of power have for some reason opted lately to especially target LGBTQ+ people, as though these public figures are just always on the prowl for a new group to harass, a historically high majority of Americans rejects the majority of Republicans’ stance.
The issue is same-sex marriage, which remains legally protected in every state, particularly after President Joe Biden signed new defenses into law as concerns mounted after the U.S. Supreme Court undid Roe v. Wade about which fundamental rights might be next. Finding a level of support the same as the prior year’s, Gallup found in survey work conducted this May that 71 percent of overall Americans believe same-sex marriage should be legal, a nationwide protection first established by a 2015 decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Polling from 1996 done by Gallup showed only about a quarter of overall respondents openly supporting the legal protection of same-sex marriages. This year, Republicans are still somewhat behind the times, as the Gallup data from 2023 showed just 49 percent of poll participants identified as belonging to that group in favor of permitting gay marriage. The level of support in the Republican subgroup was slightly — but not statistically significantly — higher in the couple of years before 2023.
Despite this high level of public support, many Republican Senators — for whatever contrived reason — voted against the recent bill protecting same-sex and interracial marriage relationships when the measure came up for consideration in their chamber. The list of opposing Republicans included Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Chuck Grassley, Josh Hawley, Ron Johnson, and others. One of the claims from the GOP side was that the initiative essentially wasn’t actually needed, though many would’ve no doubt expected protections for abortion to stay intact considering the decades such a framework had been in place before the conservatively minded Supreme Court majority undid Roe.
