BREAKING NEWS

Majority of Americans now support gay marriage, survey finds

WASHINGTON - Support for gay marriage has surged in the United States in the decade since it first became legal in Massachusetts, with just over half of Americans now supporting the idea, according to a survey released on Wednesday.
The survey on attitudes towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people comes as US lawmakers and courts are increasingly allowing same-sex couples to wed.
Some 53 percent of the 4,509 Americans surveyed by the Public Religion Research Institute said they supported gay marriage, up from 32 percent in 2003, when Massachusetts became the first state to legalize it.
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia recognize gay marriage, with bans overturned in several states after the US Supreme Court ruled in June that legally married same-sex couples were eligible for federal benefits.
Fewer Americans who describe themselves as religious oppose same-sex marriages, the survey found. Negative church teachings or treatment of gay couples was cited by 31 percent of millennials, or people 18 to 33, as a major factor in leaving their childhood religion.