Poll: Majority of Americans support gay marriage

A majority of Americans surveyed this week say they support gay marriage, just days after voters approved pro-gay marriage ballot initiatives in Maryland, Maine and Washington. The votes in those three states, coupled with the rejection of a constitutional amendment in Minnesota that would have banned same-sex marriages, marked the first occasion that voters directly approved pro-gay marriage initiatives on the state level.

According to the survey, from ABC News and The Washington Post, 51 percent of Americans support same-sex marriages — the fifth consecutive poll taken by the news organizations that showed a majority of Americans in favor. Meanwhile, 47 percent of respondents say they oppose same-sex marriage.

More than six in 10 young adults say they support gay marriage, as do three in four Democrats. But two-thirds of seniors and more than eight in 10 voters who describe themselves as "very conservative" say they are against the practice.

The results closely mirrored exit polls from last week's election, in which a slim plurality (49-46 percent) of voters said they supported gay marriage. Unsurprisingly, supporters favored President Obama by a nearly 3-to-1 margin, while the president won 76 percent of gay and lesbian voters.

Obama announced last year that he personally supported gay marriage, making him the first sitting president to do so publicly. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said repeatedly on the campaign trail that he supported only the traditional definition of marriage.

The national poll also seems to closely mirror attitudes in the four states that considered gay-marriage ballot initiatives last week. In Maine and Washington, voters broke in favor of legalization by 53-to-47 percent margins. In Maryland, voters approved same-sex marriages 52-38 percent; Minnesota rejected a constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman, 51-48 percent.

---