The majority of South Carolina residents still oppose same-sex marriage, although more people are becoming tolerant of it.
A new Winthrop poll found that more than 52 percent of South Carolina adults polled say same-sex marriage should not be recognized in the state.
But nearly 39 percent think it should be legal, with the same rights afforded men and women who wed.
"Folks are moving toward understanding that same-sex couples should deserve, at least, the same rights as heterosexual couples," Ryan Wilson of the gay-advocacy group S.C. Equality,
told The State newspaper.
Two years ago, a poll by Public Policy Polling found that only 21 percent of South Carolina voters supported same-sex marriage, while 69 percent said it should be illegal.