A YouGov poll last week found that only 54 percent of American adults believe same-sex marriage should be legal. If support for same-sex unions is declining as much as polling suggests, Christians who believe marriage is ordained by God between man and woman have a prime opportunity to show young people a Biblical view of marriage — and political conservatives have more reason than ever to stay committed to that view.
In June, a separate YouGov survey of 4,417 U.S. adults also reported 54 percent support for same-sex marriage as a constitutional right, while 26 percent believed it should be decided by the states. Other polls have shown higher rates of support, but significant drops among Republicans and young people in recent years.
Last year, Pew Research found that 67 percent of U.S. adults supported legalized same-sex marriage, including 55 percent of self-identified Christians, while support among evangelicals was only 36 percent. In May, Gallup reported 68 percent support among American adults, and most other polls show approval hovering between 67 and 72 percent. According to Gallup, since 2022, Republican support has dwindled to about 41 percent, while Democrats maintain high support at 88 percent.
Last year, the Public Religion Research Institute found that support for legalization among young people (aged 18-29) declined from 79 percent in 2018 to 71 percent. Americans above the age of 64 — the baby boomer generation — are least supportive of legalization, at 61 percent. The high support among younger adults is likely connected to the fact that young people are far more likely to identify as LGBT themselves.
Regardless of how high overall support remains, it is worth noting the dips among Republicans and younger generations in particular. Many Republicans who were persuaded that same-sex marriage simply represented personal freedom and would not have negative social consequences have since watched as people were ostracized or “canceled” for expressing opposition. They’ve also seen individuals identifying as transgender demand acceptance in bathrooms and on sports teams designed for the opposite sex.
Members of Generation Z are also experiencing the effects of growing up with greater instability than other generations. More than one-third were raised in single-parent households, and they have spent more time interacting in isolation online than any generation before them. Today, they carry the highest average personal debt at $94,101, compared to $59,181 for millennials. They also express higher approval for communism (34 percent compared to 19 percent among millennials and 2 percent among baby boomers), tend to be less religious and less Republican, report higher rates of mental health conditions, and are more likely to be single, with 37 percent saying they are not interested in dating at all.
If millennials were the generation where everyone got a trophy, zoomers are the generation where everyone gets a filter, a manicured image of themselves they can broadcast to others as anonymous users, avatars, or internet celebrity versions of who they want to be. This has produced an endless range of choices.
Those choices can make reality more elusive. To find what they believe is “the truth,” people often turn to hyper-niche online communities. My friend AD Robles recently noted that before the internet, those who believed in Bigfoot would have had to meet at a convention and risk being mocked. Now, with only a few clicks, anyone can find an entire community ready to reinforce almost any belief.
Yet within this world, there are the rebels, those who are no longer interested in pretending. They can see what unrestricted access to pornography and unlimited sexual choice have done to themselves and their friends.
This dynamic offers a growing opportunity for Christians to present God’s natural order as good and Christ’s offer of salvation as necessary. The deepest and most genuine “red pill” is found in marital faithfulness and in the life of a Bible-believing church, where stability is not a performance for the camera but a lived reality that continues even when no one is watching.
This also creates a political opportunity. Republicans must hold firmly to the truth and not give in to compromise. Even if most zoomers continue to support same-sex marriage, the downward shift could persist and grow with careful and principled political messaging. The more people rediscover reality in the areas of marriage, family, economics, foreign policy, and social life, the more traditional conservatives will find themselves winning both the argument and the election.
This article has been lightly edited and republished from TruthScript.com, with permission.
Jon Harris is an author, producer, and cultural commentator. He hosts the “Conversations That Matter” podcast.
