Gay relationships ?morally acceptable? ? poll | Strange Bedfellows ...

A majority of Americans now agree that same-sex relationships are ?morally acceptable? and an even larger number feel they should be legal, according to a Gallup Poll taken earlier this month.

The poll found 54 percent of those questioned found gay and lesbian relationships morally acceptable.

?Do you think gay or lesbian relations between consenting adults should or should not be legal?? Gallup asked.? Sixty-three percent of those polled said they should be legal, just 31 percent said illegal.

As with President Obama?s feelings, public opinion is still ?evolving.?? But the evolution ?makes President Obama?s decision to publicly support gay marriage much less controversial than it would have been even four years ago,? Gallup concluded.

The ?morally acceptable? figure stood at 42 percent in 2004, when Republican strategist Karl Rove helped measures ?defining? marriage as between a man and a woman on ballots in 11 states.? The measures bolstered President Bush.? By 2008, however, the ?acceptable? figure had climbed to 48 percent.

?Significant pockets of resistance remain ? namely Republicans, those 55 and older, Protestants, residents of the South and in some respects men ? but the majority of other groups have grown comfortable with gay rights,? Gallup reported.

Here is a list of major players, national and local, in debate over gay rights and recognition of same-sex marriage.

President Barack Obama announced that he supports same-sex marriage on May 9, 2012, becoming the first U.S. president to do so. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Vice President Joe Biden says he is "absolutely comfortable" with same-sex and heterosexual married couples both having "the same exact rights." (Win McNamee / Getty Images)

Dan Savage writes a sex advice column for The Stranger, appears on liberal Cable TV shows, lectures at colleges around the country, is renowned for his foul mouth and has seen his critiques of monogamy used as basis for a New York Times Magazine piece. He has mercilessly baited anti-gay politicians, from religious-right presidential candidate Gary Bauer more than a decade ago to ex-Sen. Rick Santorum in 2012. (Jamie McCarthy / 2011 Getty Images)

Senator Mary Margaret Haugen, the key 25th Senate vote for same-sex marriage. (Meryl Schenker)

Gov. Chris Gregoire went through ?my own personal journey? in coming to support same-sex marriage. The journey has reinvigorated a two-term governor who confessed last fall to being tired and disheartened. ?I feel better than I have in seven years,? she says. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, like Gregoire a practicing Catholic, pushed legalization same-sex marriage through the Empire State?s fractious Legislature last spring. It became signature issue for the newly elected governor, a top Democratic presidential prospect for 2016 (and Al Pacino lookalike). (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

Ex-U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson was lead counsel for George W. Bush in 2000 election fight, the conservatives? ?go-to? lawyer in Washington, D.C., and is now co-counsel in legal fight to overturn California?s Prop. 8 ? the measure that outlawed same-sex marriage. The other co-counsel ? David Boies, chief lawyer for Al Gore in Bush v. Gore. (Jason Kempin / Getty Images)

Retired Lt. Col. Grethe Cammermeyer is a best-selling, Whidbey-based author (?Serving in Silence?) who fought 20-year battle against exclusion of gays and lesbians from the military. She is tall, regal, a community leader and canny organizer who helped turn out big crowd who urged State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano, to support marriage equality. (Associated Press)

Ex-Sen. Rick Santorum came to the fore as critique of 2003 Supreme Court ruling that tossed out Texas? anti-sodomy statute, and continues to equate gay marriage with polygamy and bigamy as 2012 presidential candidate. On Monday he railed against gay adoption as ?robbing children of something they need, they deserve, they have a right to.? (T.J. Kirkpatrick / Getty Images)

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin ?Nino? Scalia warned darkly that the Supremes were enacting the ?homosexual agenda? in the Texas ruling, and argues that the Constitution cannot be used to justify rights for sexual minorities. (JIM WATSON / AFP/Getty Images)

Cardinal (just elevated) Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, has warned: ?We see in our culture a drive to neuter religion,? and has warned that marriage equality and other measures could ?precipitate a national confrontation between church and state of enormous proportions.? He heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP/Getty Images)

Ex-Gov. Mitt Romney, front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, tried to run to the left of Sen. Ted Kennedy in 1994, arguing he could be a more effective defender/advocate of gay rights, but now declares opposition to marriage equality. ?I oppose same-sex marriage and that has been my view,? he said the other day in New Hampshire. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Pastor Ken Hutcherson of Antioch Bible Church, an ex-NFLer, has opposed everything-but-marriage statutes passed by the Washington Legislature, and carried on a long-running feud with The Stranger. (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER)

The majority for favor legal same-sex relationships includes both those who support marriage equality and those who back civil unions.? Gallup released figures last week showing a 50-48 percent majority in favor of same-sex marriage.

The groups in support include women (56 percent), those aged 18 to 34 (66 percent), residents of the East (56 percent) and those living in the West (55 percent).

?Americans? acceptance of gays and lesbians as equal members of society has increased steadily in the past decade to the point that half or more now agree that being gay is morally acceptable, that gay relationships ought to be legal, and that gay or lesbian couples should have the legal right to marry,? said Gallup.

Twof East Coast states ? Maryland and Maine ? are likely to vote on marriage equality in November.? A referendum is likely in Washington, where the Legislature passed and Gov. Gregoire signed legislation making the Evergreen State the seventh state to legalize marriage between same-sex couples.

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