From a new Public Religion Research Institute report, A Shifting Landscape: A Decade of Change in American Attitudes about Same-Sex Marriage and LGBT Issues:
Support for same-sex marriage jumped 21 percentage points from 2003, when Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, to 2013. Currently, a majority (53%) of Americans favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to legally marry, compared to 41% who oppose. In 2003, less than one-third (32%) of Americans supported allowing gay and lesbian people to legally marry, compared to nearly 6-in-10 (59%) who opposed.
Nadine Smith, CEO of Equality Florida, the state's leading LGBT rights group, points out that nearly 57 percent of Floridians support same-sex marriage, according to the report:
"These regional differences are also apparent among individual states. Roughly 6-in-10 Americans who live in California (59%), Pennsylvania (61%), and New York (60%) favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry. A smaller majority of Americans who live in Illinois (52%), Ohio (53%) and Virginia (52%) also favor same-sex marriage. Fewer than half of North Carolinians (47%) and Texans (48%) favor same-sex marriage. Florida stands out as an exception among Southern states with nearly 6-in-10 (57%) Floridians expressing support for same-sex marriage. See Appendix 2 for breakdowns of selected states across key issues."
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