Views of same-sex marriage by religion
The long-standing tension between religious beliefs and the idea of same-sex marriage has been a key factor at play behind recently proposed bills in several states, most visibly in Arizona, aimed at protecting business owners who have religious objections to same-sex marriage. At the same time, however, new Pew Research Center data from 2014 show that just within the past year, growing shares of some Christian groups favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.
The sharpest change has occurred among black Protestants, only 32% of whom favored same-sex marriage in our aggregated 2013 polling. A survey we conducted last month found that figure has now risen to 43%.
Percent who favor same-sex marriage...  | 80%  | Unaffiliated  | 60%  | White mainline Protestants  | 40  | 40%  | Catholics  | 38  | Black Protestants  | 30  | 20%  | White evangelical Protestants  | 0%  | 2001  | 2002  | 2003  | 2004  | 2005  | 2006  | 2007  | 2008  | 2009  | 2010  | 2011  | 2012  | 2013  | 2014  | Source: 2014 figures are from single Pew Research Center poll conducted Feb 12:26 2014  | Figures for other years are from aggregated data from Pew Research Center polls conducted in each year. 