According to a new report released on
Wednesday, support for gay marriage increased at an accelerated rate
over the past 2 years.
The
survey, which was commissioned by the gay marriage group Freedom
to Marry, concluded that between 2009 and 2011 the average support
for legalizing gay marriage grew at a rate of roughly 5 percent per
year, while between 1996 and 2009 the rate averaged 1 percent.
“That's actually a 500 percent
increase in the rate of change,” pollster Joel Benenson of Benenson
Strategy Group is quoted as saying at a press conference by U.S.
News & Report. “We rarely see that kind of upward spike in
support around an issue.”
Benenson, who worked for President
Barack Obama's presidential campaign, and Dr. Jan van Lohuizen of
Voter Consumer Research, who worked for former President George W.
Bush's campaign, used polling data from five national polls,
including Gallup, PRRI, CNN/ORC, ABC News/Washington Post, and
Pew Research Center, to reach their conclusions.
A large majority (68%) of young people
below the age of 30 support marriage equality, according to the
study.
“Because of demographic shifts, we
will see a steady march from a majority to a supermajority” of
support for gay marriage, Benenson said.
“Even where anti-gay ballot measures
succeed at the time, the net result is that people are prompted into
these conversations,” Freedom to Marry President Evan Wolfson said.
“The more people talk about this, the more they move into support
of the freedom to marry.”