What percent of the U.S. public supports same-sex marriage?

Sep 6

Written By Jonathan Milner

Critical Analysis

According to the data from the chart above, what percentage of Americans believe marriages between same-sex couples should be recognized by the law as valid with the same rights as traditional marriage?
Identify one trend in attitudes towards same-sex marriage from the chart above?
Why do you think that this change in views on same-sex marriage has occurred?
In 26 years (less than a generation) views on same-sex marriage have almost completely inverted (flipped). Additionally, in 2015, in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal nationwide. Explain how this major change in public opinion has impacted the American political system.
In the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution guarantees the right to privacy which protects the right to an abortion in the first trimester. This summer in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court overturned this precedent, taking away the guaranteed right to have an abortion, and limiting the constitutional right to privacy. Based on the Dobbs ruling, make a claim about whether the right to same-sex marriage will also be overturned soon?
Changes in attitudes towards race and religion and economics have evolved much more slowly than attitudes towards same-sex marriage. Why do you think that is?
A friend of mine claims that an expansion of freedom for same-sex marriage, and additional rights of same-sex couples do not infringe upon anyone else’s rights (in other words, if two men marry, that doesn’t negate or infringe upon another man’s right to marry a woman, for example.) But expansion of voting rights (for example) dilutes the power of those who previously and exclusively held the right to vote. Respond to this claim.
In the 1986 case, Bowers v. Hardwick, the Supreme Court ruled that there was no Constitution protection of same sex couples. But then in 2015, in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees the right to marry as one of the fundamental liberties it protects, and that analysis applies to same-sex couples in the same manner as it does to opposite-sex couples. Based on the graph above, how much do you think public opinion influenced their ruling in these two cases?
Beyond the Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) ruling, the Supreme Court recently ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County Georgia (2020) that it is illegal to discriminate against LGBTQ workers. Imagine that you wanted to expand LGBTQ rights beyond marriage and employment. What steps could you take to expand equality?
Based on the data from the Pew Research Center below*, describe how the following demographic factors impact opinion on same-sex marriage.*