Polls Show Increasing Support for Marriage

National support for gay rights has risen to a record high, with more than 52% of Americans agreeing that gays and lesbians should have the constitutional right to marry.

A CNN poll posted Wednesday showed 46% of 496 people surveyed do not support marriage equality. The margin of sampling error is at plus or minus three percentage points for the total sample and plus or minus three points for registered voters.

Political stat site FiveThirtyEight.com charted the growing public acceptance of marriage equality. The earliest charts show a 1988 survey in which more than 70% of respondents opposed same-sex marriage rights.