OPINION:
Gallup pollsters just found that gay marriage, while still supported by the majority of Americans, is losing a bit of its luster and falling in favor.
It’s a dip, albeit a small one. What used to come in at 67% favor — in 2018 — is now registering at 63%.
Then again, in 2017, support for gay marriage among all Americans was 64%.
So perhaps the numbers aren’t significant enough for believers of traditional and Bible-based marriages to cheer. They certainly aren’t significant enough to show America’s culture, dramatically changed by the courts of law and the courts of public opinion in this regard in the last two decades, are swinging wide to the other side.
And yet: they do show the surge of support for gay marriage seen during the Barack Obama years in the White House may have finally come to an end.
From Gallup: “Majorities of Americans have continuously supported same-sex couples’ right to marry since late 2012, not long after President Barack Obama came out in support of it — making him the first president to do so.”
By the numbers, U.S. support for gay marriage has actually steadily increased over the last couple decades — between 22-to-37 percent since 1999, depending on which age group is polled. But the Obama years roiled the issue.
“In the few years leading up to Obama’s announcement [supporting gay marriage],” Gallup said, “the issue was more contentious.”
Then came Obergefell v. Hodges, stripping states and voters of the rights to choose whether or not to recognize same-sex marriage. Then came Obergefell v. Hodges, forcing states to legalize gay marriage.
And then the dramatic shift in America’s culture was pretty much complete.
In 1999, only 35% of adults in American believed gay marriage should be legal. In 2009, that stat jumped to 40%. In 2019, it stands at 63%.
In 1999, about 22% of Republicans wanted to legalize gay marriage; in 2009, only 20% did. Now, 44% say it’s OK.
In 1999, a reported 42% of Democrats favored legalizing gay marriage; in 2009, that figure was 55%. Now, it’s 79%.
What a difference a couple of decades make.
What a difference a hard-charging left and a secularizing society make in just a short 20 years.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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