Poll: US support for equal marriage on the rise, except in southern states
A new report has been released which suggests that there has been a new, and rapid shift in support of equal marriage in the US, except in some southern states.
The report from the Pew Research Center took into account four polls from this year, and indicated that, generally, support for equal marriage had risen, reported Chron.
The exception was the state of Texas, and several other nearby southern states which had remained opposed to the idea of same-sex marriage.
The support for equal marriage had risen across the US to 48%, whilst opposition to it had fallen from 50 to 43%.
There are drastic regional differences in support. New England is the region with the highest level of support at 62% versus 29% opposition, followed by Mid-Atlantic, Pacific Coast, Mountain West, Great Lakes, and Midwest States.
In terms of regions opposed to equal marriage, the south leads in that respect. South Atlantic and South Central states showed a majority of voters as opposed to equal marriage, where in the latter, which includes Texas, 56% of voters oppose it, versus 35% for.
Southeastern states are generally more liberal because of the increasingly diverse populations of Florida, Virginia and North Carolina.
The report said, since 2003, the percentage of American voters in support of equal marriage in every region, went up between 11 and 19 points.
One result flagged by the poll as noteworthy was the African-American support for equal marriage, which was 51 to 41%, whereas historically African-American voters have been opposed to equal marriage.
The group most in support of equal marriage were Hispanic people, who favoured it 59%.
