In U.S., Record High Say Gay, Lesbian Relations Morally OK

Religion Today | Published: May 21, 2013

In U.S., Record High Say Gay, Lesbian Relations Morally OK

Americans' views toward a number of moral issues have shifted significantly since 2001. According to a new Gallup poll, Americans' acceptance of gay and lesbian relations has increased the most, up 19 percentage points in the past 12 years to a record high of 59 percent today. Americans' tolerance toward having a baby outside of marriage is also now much greater -- up 15 points since 2001 to the current 60 percent. Americans have also become significantly more accepting of sex between an unmarried man and woman, divorce, embryonic stem cell research, polygamy, and cloning humans. The only issue that Americans have become significantly less accepting of over the past 12 years is medical testing on animals. A majority of Americans continue to say seven of the 19 items measured are morally wrong: married men and women having an affair, cloning humans, polygamy, suicide, pornography, sex between teenagers (measured for the first time this year), and cloning animals. Attitudes toward two items -- doctor-assisted suicide and abortion -- are fairly evenly split, with less than half of Americans seeing each as either morally acceptable or morally unacceptable.



In U.S., Record High Say Gay, Lesbian Relations Morally OK