Majority Backs Marriage Equality

More than half of Americans say that marriages of gay and lesbian couples should be legally valid, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research poll released Tuesday.

While there are gender and generation gaps, 51% of Americans overall favor legalizing same-sex marriage. According to CNN, 60% of Americans under age 50 support marriage equality. Additionally, 57% of women favor marriage equality, while 54% of men oppose it. Nearly the same proportion of whites and nonwhites polled (52% and 51%, respectively) support marriage equality.

The poll comes out a month after a Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 53% of Americans also favor same-sex couples' right to marry. The majority support marks a double-digit shift from five years ago in the same poll, when 36% supported marriage equality.