New Poll: 42% of Americans Believe People Are 'Born This Way'

TA new Gallup poll discovered that only 42 percent of Americans believe that people are born gay, CBS D.C. reports.

Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs poll asked Americans' views about where think homosexuality comes from and also found that 37 percent of Americans say people become gay and lesbian as a result of outside factors like environment and their upbringing.

The first poll was conducted in 1977 and found 56 percent of Americans believed being gay had to do with upbringing and environment and just 13 percent thought people were born gay. Overtime, however, the gap narrowed and since 2001, Americans have been almost equally divided on the issue, with answers fluctuation every year.

Gallup's latest poll found that's women, liberals, Democrats, high-income earners, college educated Americans, whites and those who rarely or never go to church said that they believe people are born being gay. Gallup also notes that the majority of non-whites said upbringing and environment made someone gay -- a substantial increase from last year's poll.

"The contention on this question of a person's sexual orientation possibly reflects a lack of input from the scientific community, which historically has not shied away from offering its opinion on lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) issues and questions," Gallup writes. "The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its manual of mental disorders in 1973, giving credence to the nascent gay rights movement at the time."

Gallup spoke with a random sample of 1,028 adults, 18 years and older.