Support for same-sex marriage and other LGBTQ+ issues has fallen from recent highs in the United States, according to a new Gallup survey.
The findings come from Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs survey, conducted from 1 to 17 May 2026. The poll found that support for legal same-sex marriage, acceptance of gay and lesbian relationships, and approval of gender transition have all declined from peaks recorded in the early 2020s.
Today, 65% of Americans say same-sex marriage should be legal. That is down from a high of 71% in 2022 and 2023.
Meanwhile, 62% of Americans say gay and lesbian relationships are morally acceptable, the lowest level Gallup has recorded since 2016.
Republicans are driving the shift
According to Gallup, most of the recent decline has come from Republican voters.
Support for same-sex marriage among Republicans has fallen from 55% in 2021 and 2022 to 37% today.
The share of Republicans who view gay and lesbian relationships as morally acceptable has also dropped sharply, falling 21 points since 2022 to 35%.
By comparison, support among Democrats has remained largely steady. Gallup found that 87% of Democrats support same-sex marriage, while 81% say gay and lesbian relationships are morally acceptable.
Independents have seen smaller declines, with 67% supporting same-sex marriage and 64% saying same-sex relationships are morally acceptable.
Support remains higher than a generation ago
While the figures have fallen in recent years, support for marriage equality remains far higher than it was a few decades ago.
Gallup notes that when it first asked about legal same-sex marriage in 1996, only 27% of Americans supported it.
Support then increased steadily over the following two decades, helping shape the political and cultural landscape that led to the Supreme Court’s landmark Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, which legalised same-sex marriage nationwide.
Acceptance of transgender people has also declined
The survey found a similar pattern around transgender issues.
Gallup reported that 38% of Americans now believe changing one’s gender is morally acceptable, down from 46% when the question was first asked in 2021.
At the same time, 57% now say it is morally wrong.
Again, the largest shift came from Republicans. Just 5% of Republicans now say changing one’s gender is morally acceptable, down from 22% in 2021.
Among independents, 42% say gender transition is morally acceptable, while 60% of Democrats agree.
The findings follow several years of intense political debate over transgender rights, including gender-affirming healthcare, school policies, sports participation, military service and legal protections.
A widening political divide
Gallup concluded that Americans became increasingly accepting of LGBTQ+ people and supportive of LGBTQ+ rights over the past two decades, but that trend has started to reverse in recent years.
The latest survey suggests the shift is not evenly spread across the population. Instead, it reflects a growing political divide, with Republican support for same-sex marriage, same-sex relationships and transgender rights falling more sharply than among Democrats or independents.
For LGBTQ+ advocates, the findings are likely to raise concern that rights once seen as increasingly settled remain vulnerable to political backlash.
