Story Highlights
- Support for legal same-sex marriage down six points from 2022-2023 high
- 62% viewing gay/lesbian relations as moral is lowest since 2016
- Perceived morality of changing one’s gender down eight points since 2021
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After two decades of rising support for LGBTQ+ issues, U.S. attitudes have plateaued and begun to slide back modestly. Approval of same-sex marriage, moral acceptance of gay and lesbian relations, and endorsement of gender changes are all down from peaks reached in the early 2020s.
While most Americans still favor legal same-sex marriages, the 65% who do so today is down six percentage points from the peak in 2022 and 2023. Similarly, the percentage viewing gay or lesbian relations as morally acceptable, 62%, has not been lower since 2016. And the share of Americans who consider changing one’s gender morally acceptable has declined eight points over the past five years, to 38%.
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These items are from Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs survey, conducted May 1-17, 2026.
Between 1996 and 2022, the percentage of U.S. adults in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage increased by 44 points, from 27% to 71%. In 2024, the figure dipped to 69%, and it has shown a marginal decline each year since.
Gallup first asked about the morality of same-sex relations in 2001, when 40% said they were morally acceptable. By 2022, 71% held that view, before a sharp drop to 64% in 2023, holding at about that level during the past three years.
When Gallup first asked about changing one’s gender in 2021, 46% found it morally acceptable, and 51% found it morally wrong. Today, those numbers stand at 38% and 57%, respectively.
Republicans Largely Responsible for Declining Support
Most of the recent changes in LGBTQ+ attitudes have occurred among Republicans. For example, in 2021 and 2022, 55% of Republicans said they favored legal same-sex marriage, but today, the figure is 37%. Among independents, support has dropped six points, to 67%, while Democrats’ views are the same as in 2022 (87% in favor).
Partisans’ views on the morality of gay or lesbian relations have shifted similarly. Since 2022, the high point for Republicans, the share who say such relations are morally acceptable has fallen 21 points to 35%, compared with an eight-point decline among independents to 64% and no meaningful change among Democrats (now at 81%).
As a result of the recent decline, Republicans’ views of the morality of same-sex relations are now similar to what they were between 2005 and 2014.
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Currently, 5% of Republicans say changing one’s gender is morally acceptable, compared with 42% of independents and 60% of Democrats. When Gallup first asked the question in 2021, those figures were 22%, 48% and 67%, respectively. Republicans’ acceptance has declined steadily since then, while views among independents and Democrats were generally stable until an apparent drop this year.
Bottom Line
For about two decades, Americans grew more accepting of LGBTQ+ people and more supportive of their civil rights. However, those pro-LGBTQ+ attitudes peaked about five years ago and have since edged downward, mostly among Republicans. The change has come as conservative leaders have pushed back against diversity, equity and inclusion programs that were intended to foster greater acceptance of LGBTQ+ people and other historically disadvantaged groups.
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Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works. View complete question responses and trends (PDF download).
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