Support for same-sex marriage has reached a record-high among Democrats, a Gallup poll released last week found. Democrats and Republicans disagree on so many issues, it’s not surprising to see them differ here as well. But what does look different – sharply different – is support for same-sex marriage among those in the GOP.
Perhaps it didn’t have to be this way, contends David Closson, director for Family Research Council’s Center for Biblical Worldview.
Support from Democrats on the issue has reached an all-time high at 88%. Independents remain on board too, their 76% acceptance rate just one percentage point shy of a record high, Gallup says.
The GOP was not exactly a bastion of morality as U.S. acceptance of same-sex marriage began to climb in the days following Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court decision in 2015 which legalized same-sex marriage. Support among Republicans reached 55% in 2021 and 2022, Gallup found, but that was the peak. It has since been in decline.
Last week’s survey showed GOP support for same-sex marriage at 41% – its lowest since 2016, one year after the Obergefell decision.
For a time it looked like Republicans were content to let what went on in same-sex marriages remain private. But that hasn’t been enough for the LGBTQ community, Closson explained on Washington Watch Friday.
“If I had to put it in a phrase,” he told show host Jody Hice, “it’s really the overreach of the LGBTQ revolution.”
In the run-up to Obergefell, the message from supporters was unifying. There were buzzwords like "equality" and "love" with warm, colorful imaging – and phrases like "Who doesn’t love a rainbow?" But things have changed.
“You remember the phrases, love is love,” Closson recalled. “That’s kind of how this was presented to the American people. What’s clear is that the movement has expanded to include much more radical ideologies and ideas which I think has, for most Americans, raised really profound questions about human nature, about biological reality, about moral order.”
It was a blitzkrieg, not a slow build to this new LGBTQ strategy, he continued.
“The conversation quickly shifted from same-sex marriage to preferred pronouns, to allowing minor children to get irreversible surgeries and allowing men to play in women's sports leagues,” Closson pointed out.
Republican reaction
Now the response from a growing number of Republicans seems to say the movement has gotten out of control, demanding not only government acceptance but celebration of a lifestyle at odds with God’s design.
As Closson noted, Republicans who might have been willing to support government recognition – and the employment benefits that often go along with a worker’s spouse – are having a change of heart.
“They’ve woken up and realized the whole push for same-sex marriage was never the end point. It was really part of a larger agenda to really kind of undermine … the whole biblical view on sexual ethics and marriage. A lot of Republicans who maybe supported same-sex marriage are waking up and realizing, ‘I didn't sign up to support drag queen story hour,’” Closson said.
And it’s not only Republicans who are reexamining their positions on same-sex marriage, he said. Indeed, overreach can be found in schools from coast-to-coast as Maryland parents were told they could not “opt out” of the local school district’s “inclusivity” curriculum, their religious conscious objections ignored.
In California, school parents earned a win in in a two-year legal battle to remain informed regarding their children’s gender status when state attorney general Rob Bonta dropped his case against mandated parental notification policies for schools.
Bonta’s decision came five months after California Superior Court ruled that schools were required to notify parents to any “official” or “unofficial” changes to a student’s school records.
Less pride in Pride Month
Changes are taking place in Corporate America also as businesses openly supportive of the LGBTQ’s “Pride Month” in the past are backing off this June.
Mastercard, Citi, Pepsi, Nissan and PwC have pulled their sponsorships of NYC Pride. Booz Allen Hamilton and Deloitte have pulled out of World Pride in Washington, DC, and Anheuser-Busch, Comcast and Diageo have stopped sponsoring San Francisco Pride, Axios reported.
In addition, Minneapolis’ Twin Cities Pride has rejected Target’s sponsorship money citing inconsistent support of the LGBTQ community and the company’s rollback of DEI initiatives, Axios reported.
Thirty-nine percent of corporations are scaling back external Pride Month engagement in 2025, according to Gravity Research data, Axios reported.
“Recent developments in our culture have caused a lot of people to reexamine their convictions and realize that same-sex marriage really was that slippery slope that a lot of people warned us about,” Closson said.
