More than four in ten Americans (41 percent) say some of their close friends or family members are gays or lesbians, according to a recent national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, reports MarketingCharts.

About half of women, young people, college graduates, political liberals and mainline Protestants say someone close to them is gay, but significantly fewer men, conservative Republicans and older Americans say so, the survey found.

Overall, 58 percent said they had no gay friends or family members; the remaining 1 percent offered no opinion or declined to answer the question.

Among the survey findings:

• Those who say they have a family member or close friend who is gay are more than twice as likely to support gay marriage as those who don't: 55 percent to 25 percent.
• More women than men - 47 percent versus 35 percent - say they have a close friend or family member who is gay.
• Conservative Republicans are the least likely to say they have a close gay friend or family member (33 percent)
• Liberal Democrats are most likely to say they have a close gay friend or family member (59 percent).
• Mainline Protestants and seculars are the most likely to say they had a gay family member or close friend: 47 percent say so.

MarketingCharts provides a bit more from the Pew study.