The share of U.S. adults who support same-sex marriage and laws that protect LGBTQ people from discrimination has dipped in the last year, a survey has found.
After steadily increasing over the last decade, support for same-sex marriage dipped to 67% in 2023 from a record high of 69% the year before, according to the survey of more than 22,000 U.S. adults, which was conducted by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute, or PRRI, and reported a margin of sampling error of 0.82%. More than three-quarters of those surveyed (76%) favored laws that protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodation, a decline from a record high of 80% in 2022.
Melissa Deckman, PRRI’s chief executive, noted that while support for same-sex marriage and nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people remains significantly higher than it was a decade ago, the year-over-year declines surprised researchers.
“You can’t really take a look at this report and not note some declines, especially among Republicans,” Deckman told NBC News in an interview. “Party polarization is really driving the national averages down.”