Public Supports Allowing Openly Gay Troops to Serve

Although the Senate today blocked consideration of a bill repealing DADT, a new poll released today confirms that the American public is broadly supportive of allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the military.

The new Gallup poll found that 67% of Americans, including 81% of Democrats and 70% of independents, support allowing open service by homosexual troops. Republicans were more evenly divided, with 47% saying they were for the proposal and 49% against. In total, 28% of respondents said they were against the proposal.

A smaller subset of those who described themselves as conservative Republicans remains opposed to allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military -- 39% say they are for permitting them to serve openly and 57% say they are against it.

The new poll is largely consistent with other recent polling on the issue. Polls have shown the American public to be broadly supportive of open service over the past 15 years.

The poll was conducted Dec. 3-6 among 1,003 adults, and has a margin of error of four percentage points.

Read the whole report.