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Survey Says: More Americans Approve of Homosexuality and Same-Sex Marriage Than Ever Before

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Photo by Amy Walters via Shutterstock

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More and more Americans are in support of same-sex marriage, according to a recent survey. The National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey, released Wednesday, indicates that almost half of Americans approve of same-sex marriage, and there is an increase in acceptance of homosexuality over all, according to Reuters.

In 1988, support for same-sex marriage was at 11 percent, but per the survey, that number more than quadrupled to 46 percent in 2010.

Here's more about the survey from Reuters:

Younger American adults surveyed were much more accepting of same-sex marriage than older Americans, illustrated by support among 64 percent of those under 30 compared to 27 percent among those older than 70. The survey, which has been taken every other year for 40 years, found 86 percent supported a gay person’s right to speak before a public audience, 24 points higher than in 1972. Also, 84 percent supported allowing gays to teach at colleges or universities, up from 48 percent in 1973.

While those figures are encouraging, there remains the fact that there are people in the nation who do not support a person's right to speak in public or teach at the post-secondary level based on their sexuality.

The U.S. Census Bureau recently estimated the number of same-sex married couple households in the United States at 131,279.

Six states currently allow same-sex marriages. California isn't one of them.

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