Opposition to gay marriage in the United States is becoming increasingly restricted to minority sectors of the population, according to a new analysis of polling data.
The analysis, by major pollsters for the Republican and Democratic parties, suggests that a majority of voters over the age of 65 are still opposed to same sex marriage – by 58 to 37 per cent, but notes that voters in that age group make up just one sixth of the population. Voters under the age of 65, meanwhile, now support gay marriage, by a relatively modest but decisive majority (52 to 44 per cent).
Meanwhile, voters who see themselves as white evangelical Christians oppose gay marriage by an overwhelming 73 to 24 per cent. However, this sector of the US population represents only one quarter of the total. Same sex marriage has majority support amongst the remaining three quarters, by 58 to 36 per cent.
The data was gathered by pollsters Joel Benenson, who works for President Obama and Jan Van Lohuizen, the former chief pollster for George W Bush, on behalf of gay marriage campaign organisation Freedom To Marry.
Benenson believes opposition to gay marriage is now “concentrated in a very small slice of the electorate”, the Los Angeles Times reports.
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