The Scarlet Letter and Polling America

Majority: 

Morally Approve of:

• interracial marriage

• divorce

• sex between unmarried partners ("fornication")

• having a child out of wedlock

• same-sex marriage

Morally Disapprove of:

• adultery

• polygamy

American laws regarding sexual behaviors have changed considerably over the past half century.  Fifty years ago, American public opinion and the associated legal landscape looked very different from today:

• Divorce:  the vast majority of states allowed divorce only for "fault" -adultery, cruelty, etc.
• Adultery -an extramarital affair:  illegal 
• Fornication -sex outside marriage:  illegal
• Interracial Marriage:  illegal in most states
• Sex and Even Affectionate Intimacy Between Same-sex Partners: illegal
• Having a Child Out of Wedlock:  shamed to the point of charities operating homes for unwed mothers to "hide" from society while pregnant

As Gallup polling data from circa 2001 to 2013 shows, the majority of Americans now morally approve of:

• interracial marriage
• divorce
• sex between unmarried partners ("fornication")
• having a child out of wedlock
• same-sex marriage

Even for polygamy -being married to multiple partners at the same time- the percentage of Americans morally approving has doubled in the past 12 years.

Noticeably unchanged, however, is moral approval for extramarital sex.  Adultery polls only at 6-7% in moral approval.  Infidelity remains morally unacceptable to most Americans.  Interestingly -and I cannot find the study where I read this- moral disapproval of infidelity drops as the age of the respondent increases.  Perhaps because they have lived through their own infidelities as cheater or betrayed, the older an American becomes the more likely he or she is to be forgiving towards a marital infidelity.  The most disapproving of Americans by age are in turn the youngest respondents on polls of adults.