The Obama administration alarmed some religious and social conservatives Wednesday when the Justice Department said it no longer will defend the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act.

In other words, although the federal ban on gay marriage is still in effect, the government under President Obama will not go to court to defend it.

“It’s a new world,” James Esseks, who heads the American Civil Liberties Union’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project, was quoted as saying.

Same-sex marriage has been gaining public support in the United States for the last 15 years.

The Pew Research group conducted two polls in 2010 and found 42 percent of American in favor of gay marriage, up from 37 percent in 2009.

The weakest support was among African Americans (30 percent) compared with whites (44 percent) and non-black Hispanics (41 percent).

QUESTION: Do you support gay marriage?

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