POLL: Americans More Accepting of Gay Sex Than Ever

Americans are more accepting than ever of activities once considered immoral -- and the one that has seen the greatest increase in acceptance since the century began is sexual activity between people of the same gender, according to a new Gallup poll.

Gallup's latest Values and Beliefs Survey, conducted May 6-10, shows 63 percent of respondents saying "gay or lesbian relations" are morally acceptable, up from 40 percent in 2001. This represents "the biggest leftward shift" on any of the 19 issues covered in the survey, says an article on Gallup's website.

"The substantial increase in Americans' views that gay and lesbian relations are morally acceptable coincide with a record-high level of support for same-sex marriage and views that being gay or lesbian is something a person is born with, rather than due to one's upbringing or environment," the article further notes.

Americans are also much more accepting of other things once considered immoral, including having a baby outside of marriage, sexual relations between an unmarried man and woman, divorce, and medical research using stem cells obtained from human embryos, Gallup reports.

Gallup found that two practices declined in moral acceptability, in respondents' view, since 2001: medical testing on animals, considered morally acceptable by 56 percent this year, down from 65 percent 14 years ago, and the death penalty, which 60 percent found morally acceptable versus 63 percent. "Americans' decreased acceptance of these practices actually moves them in a more liberal direction," the Gallup article notes.

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Extramarital affairs, human cloning, and polygamy were still deemed acceptable by only a small minority of respondents, although they saw some increase in support.

Gallup has been polling on all 19 issues in the same format since the early 2000s. The latest poll is based on telephone interviews, with a random sample of 1,024 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.