All States Increase in Support for Marriage Equality, With Majority Support in 17 States

These trends aren’t going to stop:

According to a special reported titled Polling Shows Americans Support LGBT People On All Issues released Wednesday by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest gay rights advocate, support for gay marriage has increased in all 50 states.

“While the American people embrace their LGBT friends and neighbors, government remains a lagging indicator of acceptance,” HRC President Joe Solmonese said in a statement. “The numbers don’t lie. Americans want equal rights for LGBT citizens and lawmakers should heed their call.”

Citing research conducted at Columbia University, the report’s authors found that as recently as 2004 such unions did not have majority support in any state, and only 3 states in 2008.

But in 2010, 17 states turned the corner, including Delaware (50%), Nevada (50%), Maryland (51%), Pennsylvania (51%), Oregon (52%), Colorado (52%), Washington (54%), Hawaii (54%), Maine (55%), New Jersey (55%), New Hampshire (55%), California (56%), Connecticut (57%), New York (58%), Vermont (59%) and Rhode Island (60%).

Of course, Massachusetts rounds off the top at 62% support. It goes on to point out that support for marriage equality is lowest in Utah [22%], but that represents a 10% increase over the previous generation.

It bears repeating, but Maggie Gallagher might want to start working on her c.v. Just a thought.

The full report is here if you want to read it.