Are African Americans Changing Their Mind About Gay Marriage?

Last month, Jet -- a magazine marketed to African-American population -- featured their first gay male couple in their wedding announcements. The announcement may be a sign that African-American attitudes towards gay marriage may be turning around. While the group has typically endorsed gay marriage at lower rates than White Americans, the gap between Blacks and Whites has been narrowing.

The Pew Research Center reports that the percent of Whites opposed to gay marriage dropped from 51 percent in 2008 to 41 percent in 2012. Among Blacks, the percent in opposition dropped from 63 percent to 49 percent. African-Americans and Whites are now separated by eight percentage points instead of twelve.

The data above was collected in April of 2012. In May, Obama announced that he supported gay marriage. It remains to be seen whether Obama's modeling of a pro-gay stance will influence the opinions of the African-American community further.

Originally posted at Sociological Images.

Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College and the principle writer for Sociological Images. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

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