Shows with gay characters, like Glee, Modern Family, and The New Normal, are helping drive voters to historically unprecedented support of gay marriage, an Oct. 29 THR poll conducted in conjunction with partner Penn Schoen Berland has found. Though gay TV also makes some voters more intensely opposed to gay marriage, they are outnumbered by voters who become more supportive of gay marriage, influenced by what they see on TV.
“This data would suggest that seeing this stuff makes it more socially acceptable,” says THR pollster Jon Penn. “Views on gay marriage have exponentially gone in its favor since 2002.” Social conservatives who fear the influence of gay-friendly TV are evidently right to fear it.
In the past 10 years, the THR poll of likely voters across the nation found, about three times as many voters have become more pro-gay marriage as have become more anti-gay marriage — 31 percent pro, 10 percent anti.
