The Hill News

President Obama's shift to support gay marriage may have encouraged more Americans â€" and especially African Americans â€" to shift in favor of the idea, according to a new poll released Wednesday.

A high water mark â€" 53 percent â€" of Americans support gay marriage according to the survey by the Washington Post and ABC News, up dramatically from six years ago, when just over one-third of respondents believed it should be legal. Less than four in 10 Americans say gay marriage should be illegal.

The poll also found that nearly six in 10 African Americans now support gay marriage, up from around four in 10 before the president's announcement, according to the Post. While the sample size of African Americans in the survey was small enough to interpret the results with caution, the substantial size of the shift on the issue suggests that the president's announcement could have had a major impact on attitudes within the African American community.

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