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Majority of Americans say same-sex orientation is related to birth: Gallup

Xinhua, May 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

For the first time, a majority of Americans, or 51 percent, say the same-sex orientation of gays and lesbians is something they are born with rather than something determined by their upbringing or environment, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.

Only 30 percent of Americans believe that being gay or lesbian is not something a person is born with, but rather due to factors such a upbringing and environment, the poll showed.

This marks a significant break from the past, as majorities in the 1970s and 1980s attributed being gay to environmental factors rather than innate characteristics. It shows that Americans are clearly becoming more accepting of gays and lesbians, Gallup said.

The question of whether people with same-sex orientation are born that way has been a issue in recent presidential campaign. Republican candidate Ben Carson set off a minor controversy when he suggested people "absolutely" choose to be gay or lesbian, citing same-sex activity among prisoners as evidence.

Carson later apologized for those comments. Another Republican candidate, Marco Rubio, said that while he does not support same- sex marriage, he does believe people are born gay or lesbian.

Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are evenly divided on whether Americans are born gay or lesbian, at 40 percent, or whether same-sex orientation is determined by environmental factors, at 36 percent.

However, even that is a dramatic shift for Republicans, as it represents the first time they have not attributed being gay or lesbian to environmental factors by at least a small margin, according to Gallup.

In 2001, Democrats and Democratic leaners were divided on the origins of same-sex orientation, but since then have shown a clear tendency to believe that it is an innate characteristic, with 62 percent holding that view this year, Gallup said.

In addition to their changing views on the origins of same-sex orientation, Americans' views on the morality of same-sex relations have also shifted in recent years.

Currently, a record-high 63 percent of Americans describe gay or lesbian relations as "morally acceptable." That became the majority view in 2010. Only a decade ago, a majority thought same- sex relations were morally wrong. Endite