Earlier this week, YouGov published a poll showing that only 54 percent of American adults support legalized same-sex marriage ceremonies. 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. For Christians opposed to the legalization of same-sex marriage ceremonies, this may appear to be an encouraging development, but before celebrating too much, it is worth considering whether these polls are outliers.
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, the trend has been for Republicans to favor legalization less strongly, at around 41 percent, while Democrats maintain high support at 88 percent.
Last year, the Public Religion Research Institute found that support for legalization among Generation Z declined from 77 percent in 2020 to 71 percent. The age group least supportive of legalization are Baby Boomers at 61 percent. The high support among younger adults is likely connected to the fact that one in five Americans ages 18 to 29 identify as LGBTQ (22 percent), a much higher rate than any other generation. For comparison, only 3 percent of Baby Boomers identify as LGBTQ.
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 “cancelled” for expressing opposition, while some individuals identifying as transgender have used legal and institutional mechanisms to push for acceptance in areas such as bathrooms and sports.
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 diagnosed mental health conditions (35 percent), and are more likely to be single, with 17 percent saying they are not interested in a relationship 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. Pandora’s box is open, and someone can now find a following for anything from being a pervert to a traditional wife, to a provocateur promoting extreme ideas.
This is also a world where images grow cheaper and reality becomes more elusive. To find what they believe is “the truth,” people often turn to hyper-niche online communities that claim to hold special knowledge, cutting through the digital “Matrix.” 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 has done to themselves and their friends. To them, ideas like same sex marriage are not appealing.
If this is true, it means there is still 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 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.
Sources
https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/econtoplines_6P3FccQ.pdf
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/religion-and-views-on-lgbtq-issues-and-abortion
https://news.gallup.com/poll/691139/record-party-divide-years-sex-marriage-ruling.aspx
https://www.aecf.org/blog/generation-z-statistics
https://www.newsweek.com/gen-z-debt-problem-2036421
https://www.cato.org/blog/young-americans-socialism-too-much-thats-problem-libertarians-must-fix
https://www.axios.com/2024/01/23/gen-z-less-religious-more-liberal-lgbtq
