Why democrats support gay marriage
On LGBT issues, both parties move left
On the always contentious subject of LGBT issues, both parties’ 2024 platforms are significant—one for what it contains, the other for what it omits.
The Democrats’ 2024 platform looks much like the 2020 version. Written before Vice President Harris replaced President Biden at the top of the ticket, and approved without significant revision, the 2024 document declares: “President Biden is committed to leading the most pro-equality administration in history.” It boasts that Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act (recognizing same-sex marriage in federal law), reversed former President Trump’s ban on military service by gender nonconforming Americans, pardoned service members who were punished by the military for their sexuality, ended the Food and Drug Administration’s ban on blood donations by gay and attracted to both genders men, protected gender-affirming health care, and more.
Also as in 2020, the 2024 platform pledges to pass the Equality Act, a bill that would expand federal civil rights protections to LGBT people that has passed the Property but stalled in the Senate; to protect the rights of LGBT adoptive and foster parents; to restrict so-called “convers
Republican support for same-sex marriage is lowest in a decade, Gallup Poll finds
Marriage for same-sex couples has been legal across the United States since the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision a decade ago. While Democratic assist for gay nuptials has risen steadily since that landmark 2015 ruling, Republican support has tumbled 14 points since its write down high of 55% in 2021 and 2022, according to a Gallup inform released Thursday.
In the latest Gallup Poll, 41% of Republicans and 88% of Democrats said marriages between same-sex couples should be “recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages.” This 47-point gap is the largest it has been since Gallup first started asking the question in 1996. The report found 76% of independents and 68% of all U.S. adults surveyed backed marriage rights for same-sex couples.
A separate question about whether “gay or lesbian relations” are “morally acceptable or morally wrong” found a similar political trend, with 86% of Democrats, 69% of independents and 38% of Republicans answering answering “morally acceptable.”
When broken down by nonpolitical subgroups, women, younger people and college
Same-Sex Relations, Marriage Still Supported by Most in U.S.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- More than two in three Americans continue to believe that marriage between same-sex couples should be legal (69%), and nearly as many say gay or woman loving woman relations are morally acceptable (64%). Both readings own been consistently above the 50% mark since the early 2010s and above 60% since 2017.
The recent halt in the long-term upward trend in both indicators of public help for the LGBTQ+ collective reflects Democrats’ and independents’ support leveling off, while Republicans’ has dipped slightly.
Same-Sex Marriage Support Near Tape High
The latest 69% of Americans who support legal same-sex marriage, from Gallup’s May 1-23 Values and Beliefs poll, is statistically similar to the tape high of 71% recorded in 2022 and 2023. When Gallup first polled about same-sex marriage in 1996, 27% of Americans thought such unions should be legal, and 68% said they should not.
By 2004, 42% were in favor, and in 2011, support crossed the majority level for the first time. After registering slightly lower in two subsequent measures, public support for legal recognition of same-se
PHILADELPHIA — No issue has elicited greater cheers from inside the convention hall this week than gay rights.
But it hasn’t always been that way.
The party only officially embraced same-sex marriage in its platform four years ago, and this year’s nominees, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, came around on the issue after that.
This year, though, speaker after speaker at the Democratic National Convention demanded equal treatment based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a Modern York congressman who has led the fight on Capitol Hill, spoke Thursday. And for the first time at any political convention, an openly gender non-conforming woman addressed the delegates.
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The Democratic party has evolved in “an incredibly short period of time,” said Modern Hampshire Democratic Party chairman Raymond Buckley, the first openly gay vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.
“It was hard,” he said of the push to encompass marriage equality in the platform four years ago. “Allowing people to find there is always the answer.”
Speakers on
Marriage Equality to Be Included in Democratic Party Platform
Washington– Today the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, male lover, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) civil rights organization, applauded the Democratic Party platform drafting committee for approving language that adds support for marriage equality to the Party’s platform. The language must now be ratified by the packed platform committee and then by the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte this September.
“Like Americans from all walks of life, the Democratic Party has known that committed and loving gay and lesbian couples merit the right to have their relationships respected as matching under the law,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “I believe that one day very soon the platforms of both major parties will include similar language on this issue. There is no more American value than honoring and protecting one’s family.”
Support for marriage equality has risen quickly and consistently over the last decade, with 53 percent of Americans now supporting marriage rights for same-sex attracted and lesbian couples. According to a recent