Just How Far Have Americans Come On Gay Marriage?
Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg arrives with others for the State of the Union address on Capitol Hill January 20, 2015 in Washington, DC.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty ImagesWhen Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told Bloomberg in an interview Wednesday that it “would not take a large adjustment” for Americans to accept a ruling that made marriage a constitutional right for gays and lesbians, she was speaking as the feisty grande dame of the court's liberal wing. But she might as well have been announcing poll results.
“The change in people’s attitudes on that issue has been enormous,” Ginsburg said, and indeed it has. According to Gallup, as of May 2014, 55 percent of Americans believe marriages between same-sex couples should be recognized by law in the same manner as traditional marriages (the most recent data available). Among those age 18 to 29, support for recognizing gay marriages reached 78 percent last year.