A national survey released today by the Washington Post and ABC News shows that support for marriage equality has increased since the Supreme Court decided two marriage-related cases last summer.

According to the poll, 59 percent of Americans say they support same-sex marriage. Additionally, a majority of Americans believe that marriage is a constitutional right that should apply to gay and lesbian couples.

The support is also widespread geographically, even in states that do not yet have marriage equality. In the 33 states that prohibit same-sex marriage, 53 percent of those polled support allowing it.

This is the 40^th poll to confirm that a majority of Americans support the freedom to marry for gay and lesbian couples.

The number of polls showing majority support for marriage equality continues to climb. An additional 2 surveys released today clearly demonstrate that a majority of Americans support marriage for gay and lesbian couples. This brings the current total of surveys to 28.

The polls released today are:

• Bloomberg: 52%
• Pew: 51%

Additionally, the Pew survey found that regardless of their beliefs, 3 out of 4 Americans believe marriage equality is inevitable and 9 in 10 Americans know someone who is gay or lesbian.

For the complete list of national polls, visit AFER’s Resource Center.

In May of 2011, bipartisan pollsters Joel Benenson (of Benenson Strategy Group) and Jan van Lohuizen (of Voter Consumer Research) released a memorandum illustrating that growth in support for the freedom to marry had accelerated. The 2012 elections confirmed this trend when all 4 states with ballot questions on the issue voted to support the freedom to marry.

And it gets even better: an analysis of the 2012 exit polls conducted on Election Day confirm another key insight. Significant opposition to the freedom to marry is increasingly isolated within narrow demographic groups while a much broader and more diverse majority are ready to let gay and lesbian couples marry.

Are you ready for some fantastic news? A new survey from respected researchers Anzalone Liszt Grove shows massive support for marriage equality, including in some demographic groups that you might not expect.

An overwhelming majority of voters of all political persuasions, including those who personally oppose marriage equality, also believe that granting same-sex couples the same legal right to marry as straight couples is likely to happen: 77% believe that marriage for gays and lesbians will be legal in the United States in “the next couple of years” and 83% believe that it will happen in “the next 5-10 years”. This finding reflects a double-digit increase in voters’ opinions on this issue in just two years.

Notably, voters on both sides of the issue (those who favor marriage equality and those who oppose it) do not feel that allowing same-sex couples to marry will have much of an impact on them personally – 62% believe it will either have not much impact or absolutely no impact at all, and the vast majority of these voters (44% of the electorate) believe it will have absolutely no impact on their lives either way.

Some key findings:

Voters from all political persuasions believe that the ability to marry the person you love is a Constitutional right of every American. This sentiment spans across party lines, as 91% of Democrats, 75% of Independents, and 56% of Republican voters all believe the freedom to marry the person you love is a Constitutional right.

An overwhelming majority of voters — including majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents — believe that allowing same-sex couples the right to legally marry is likely to happen regardless of their personal opinion on the issue. While Democratic voters feel most strongly (82% believe it will happen in the next couple years), huge margins of Independents and Republicans feel the same way (73% and 70% respectively).

Nearly two-thirds of voters believe that allowing same-sex couples to legally marry would not impact them. Nearly two-thirds of voters believe that that allowing gay and lesbian couples to legally marry would not have much impact or would have no impact on them at all. Fifteen percent (15%)believe the impact would be positive; only 19% of all voters believe that a ruling allowing gays and lesbians to legally marry would have a negative impact on them.

Meanwhile, a second poll, from the Center for American Progress and Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), found that voters see the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as discriminatory. Here are some more results from that survey:

Here we are at the end of 2012, and after a year of amazing progress we’re closer than ever to full federal marriage equality. Think about where we were a year ago with Prop 8, with DOMA, with marriage laws from state to state. So much has happened since then. So let’s do a quick year-in-review to get you caught up with the progress we made in 2012, and where we’re going to focus in 2013, including which states are the most likely to make headlines in the coming year.

More suspense from the Supreme Court, with an announcement in the Prop. 8 case pushed back to Friday at the earliest. Meanwhile, a setback in a Nevada lawsuit, but now the case goes to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. That court previously ruled in favor of marriage equality in the Prop. 8 case. And with a string of losses and plummeting poll numbers, anti-gay groups are quickly running out of donors.

“They say demography is destiny, and in American politics destiny has belonged to those who best aligned their core beliefs with the rapidly changing and ever-improving citizenry.

“Conservatives—and I count myself as one—succeed when we attract new supporters to timeless traditions. The Republican Party’s loss in this month’s presidential election resulted partly from a failure to embrace some of America’s fastest-growing constituencies. One area of significant change is in attitudes toward legal equality for gay Americans.

“Some misperceive the issue of marriage equality as exclusively progressive. Yet what could be more conservative than support for more freedom and less government? And what freedom is more basic than the right to marry the person you love? Smaller, less intrusive government surely includes an individual deciding whom to marry. Allowing civil marriage for same-sex couples will cultivate community stability, encourage fidelity and commitment, and foster family values.

…

“Conservatives don’t need to change core convictions to embrace the growing support for equal rights for gay Americans. It is sufficient to recognize the inherent conservatism in citizens’ desire to marry, to be judged on their work, and not to be singled out for higher taxes or bullying at school. These objectives can be achieved while also protecting religious liberty, as demonstrated by states enacting civil marriage with exemptions for religious institutions.”

In the piece, he also outlines research uncovered by a group he helped establish, Project Right side, which commissioned leading GOP polling firm Target Point to survey 16,000 voters over the past year, over-sampling Republican and swing voters in battleground states, including 2,000 such voters on Election Night.

According to the findings:

• A majority of Americans favor civil marriage for same-sex couples. .. Walter Olson of the Cato Institute analyzed the Maryland data and found majority support for marriage equality in strong GOP precincts that voted for Mitt Romney. Our Election Night exit poll of 2,000 voters in battleground states (of whom 32% were Republican, 36% Democratic and 32% independent) showed a majority opposing the federal Defense of Marriage Act of 1996: 62% believe that if states recognize same-sex marriage, the federal government should grant same-sex couples the same benefits as heterosexual couples.
• The marriage-equality issue is more important to supporters than to opponents. While this election focused on the economy, President Obama’s support for marriage equality was a positive motivator for nearly three out of four Obama voters in battleground states, according to exit polls. Almost half of his voters (45%) said it made them “much more” likely to support him. Only 35% of Romney supporters said that the former governor’s opposition made them “much more” likely to support him.
• A majority of independents favor marriage equality. Project Right Side’s survey found that 58% of independents in target states support allowing gay couples to marry, with 22% calling it a very high or somewhat high priority. Eighty percent of independents agree that “the government should stay out of the private lives of adults, including gays and lesbians.”
• Republicans are increasingly supportive of legal protections for gay Americans. Of the 7,000 Republicans we surveyed, 73% support employment nondiscrimination protections for gays and lesbians, 61% support safe-schools protections (such as those signed into law by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie) and 46% support allowing same-sex couples to jointly file tax returns.

As the Washington Post notes:

• Women are 18 percentage points more supportive than men (59 to 41 percent)
• Support among African American is more evenly divided, with 49% support, up dramatically from four years ago.
• 53% of Latinos support marriage for gay and lesbian couples.

Here is a list of the national polls we’ve been tracking that clearly show a majority support:

1. August 11, 2010: CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows that a majority (52%) of Americans believe gays and lesbian couples should have a constitutional right to marry.
2. August 11, 2010: Associated Press/National Constitution Center poll shows that a majority (52%) of Americans support marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples.
3. March 18, 2011: Washington Post/ABC News poll shows majority of Americans (53%) support marriage equality.
4. April 19, 2011: CNN-ORC International poll shows a majority of Americans (51%) support marriage for gay and lesbian couples.
5. May 19, 2011: Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) poll shows a majority of Americans (51%) support the freedom to marry for gay and lesbian couples.
6. May 20, 2011: A national Gallup poll confirms that a majority of Americans (53%) believe that gay and lesbians should have the freedom to marry.
7. July 17, 2011: An ABC News/Washington Post poll shows a majority of Americans (51%) support the freedom to marry for gay and lesbian couples.
8. September 9, 2011: A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows that a majority (53%) of Americans believe marriages for gay and lesbian couples should recognized by the law.
9. September 30, 2011: An Associated Press-National Constitution Center poll shows that a majority (53%) of Americans support legally recognized marriages for gay and lesbian couples.
10. March 10, 2012: An ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that 52% of Americans support marriage equality.
11. May 8, 2012: A Gallup national poll confirms that a majority of Americans support marriage equality.
12. May 23, 2012: A Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that 53% of Americans support marriage equality.
13. June 6, 2012: A CNN/ORC International survey shows that 54% of Americans support marriage equality.
14. August 16, 2012: An AP/NCC national poll shows that 53% support legal reckogition of marriage equality.
15. September 8, 2012: The New York Times/CBS News national surveys shows 51% of Americans support marriage equality.
16. November 14, 2012: Washington Post-ABC News shows 51% support marriage for gay and lesbian Americans.
17. June 25, 2012: the iMediaEthics poll shows that 70% of Americans are “’not upset’ with gay marriage.”

How many people out there are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender?

That’s a hard thing to measure since identity involves complex social and cultural patterns. As Gallup notes, because of strong social stigma (as we learned during the AFER’s Prop. 8 trial) many respondents might not want to identify themselves as LGBT in a survey.

But now, in the largest study about the distribution of LGBT Americans, over 120,000 people and counting, Gallup has estimated that 3.4% of the American population identifies as LGBT.

The initial report also clearly shows who makes up the LGBT population, dispelling the myth that most LGBT people are older, rich, white gay men.

• Nonwhite Individuals Are More Likely to Identify as LGBT
  The survey results show that 4.6% of African-Americans identify as LGBT, along with 4.0% of Hispanics and 4.3% of Asians. The disproportionately higher representation of LGBT status among nonwhite population segments corresponds to the slightly below-average 3.2% of white Americans who identified as LGBT.
• Younger Americans Are More Likely to Identify as LGBT
  Adults aged 18 to 29 (6.4%) are more than three times as likely as seniors aged 65 and older (1.9%) to identify as LGBT. Among those aged 30 to 64, LGBT identity declines with age — at 3.2% for 30- to 49-year-olds and 2.6% for 50- to 64-year-olds.
• Women Are Slightly More Likely to Identify as LGBT Than Are Men

Although the difference is not large, women are slightly more likely to identify as LGBT than are men (3.6% vs. 3.3%) — a finding that is consistent with other surveys. Put differently, more than 53% of LGBT individuals are women.

• LGBT Americans Tend to Have Lower Levels of Education and Income
  Gallup’s analysis shows that identification as LGBT is highest among Americans with the lowest levels of education. Among those with a high school education or less, 3.5% identify as LGBT, compared with 2.8% of those with a college degree and 3.2% of those with postgraduate education. LGBT identification is highest among those with some college education but not a college degree, at 4.0%.

A similar pattern is found across income groups. More than 5% of those with incomes of less than $24,000 a year identify as LGBT, a higher proportion than among those with higher incomes — including 2.8% of those making $60,000 a year or more.

Read more about the report at gallup.com >

Another ruling against the Defense of Marriage Act marks the anti-gay law’s eighth consecutive loss in court. Also this week, a former Prop. 8 supporter releases a new video explaining his change of heart. And polling on marriage in key states remains very close just days out from the election.