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A gay marriage supporter holds a placard at the US Supreme Court on March 27, 2013 in Washington, DC.

With the United States Supreme Court set to announce its decisions on two landmark same-sex marriage cases later this month, a significant percentage of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans believe the issue is taking too much attention away from other gay-rights issues, an extensive new survey of LGBT individuals has found.

According to a poll of 1,197 LGBT Americans conducted by the Pew Research Center -- the first of its kind from the venerable survey-taker -- 39 percent say same-sex marriage is overshadowing other priorities such as equal employment rights, HIV prevention and adoption rights. However, a majority of respondents, 58 percent, still believe same-sex marriage should be a top priority even if it takes attention away from other issues they deem important.

The survey also found that an overwhelming majority of LGBT people -- more than nine in 10 -- believe both that America is growing more accepting of homosexuality and that the country will become even more accepting in the coming decade. However, many responded that they still feel stigmatized for being gay, bisexual or transgender. Twenty-one percent said they have been treated unfairly at work, 30 percent said they have been physically attacked or threatened, and nearly 40 percent said that they have been rejected by a friend or family member because of their sexual orientation. And 58 percent of respondents said they have been targets of slurs or jokes.

Despite the advances in perceived acceptance among the LGBT community, the survey found fewer than six in 10 respondents have come out to their mother (and just four in 10 are out to their fathers). This is despite the finding that the majority of those who are out to their parents say that fact did not damage their relationships.

Compared to the general demographics of America, the survey found that the LGBT population skews more liberal and Democratic, more satisfied with the direction of the country, and less religious -- but also less happy. Just 18 percent of LGBT adults say they are "very happy" with their lives, compared to 30 percent of adults in the general public. That is a finding that the poll-takers say is bedeviling, but may correspond to the fact that the LGBT community is generally younger with lower family incomes than the general populace, two factors that tend to account for "less happy" responses in other surveys.

And then there's the question of who the LGBT community feels is most responsible for championing gay rights. President Obama leads the way there, with 23 percent of respondents naming him as the most important public figure working to advance LGBT causes. Next was talk show host Ellen DeGeneres at 18 percent. One respondent, a 31-year-old bisexual female, defended her choice of DeGeneres by saying that she "has been out for so long that it is no longer an issue, and older white women feel comfortable with her show. She normalizes LGBT people."

The survey was conducted in April and administered entirely online, a method that tends to acquire more honest answers on sensitive topics such as sexual orientation due to its anonymity, according to Pew. 

Larry Downing / Reuters file

Can you name these Supreme Court justices? Take our quiz below.

The Supreme Court has been making big headlines this summer, both with its split decision to upheld one part of a tough Arizona immigration law while striking down three other parts, and its decision to upheld the 2010 health care law, thus preserving President Obama’s landmark legislative achievement.

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In the latter ruling, the majority opinion held that the Affordable Care Act was a valid exercise of Congress’s power to tax. In the ruling on Arizona's immigration law, the part that the justices upheld requires police officers stopping someone to make efforts to verify the person’s immigration status with the federal government.

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Despite all the media attention, a national survey by FindLaw.com, a legal information Web site, found that nearly two-thirds of Americans can't name any of the nine members of the Supreme Court of the United States. In fact, results show that only 34 percent of Americans can name any member of the nation's highest court, and only one percent can correctly name all nine justices.

"Recent rulings, particularly the decision upholding health care reform, have brought more attention to the U.S. Supreme Court than we've seen in past years," said Stephanie Rahlfs, an attorney and editor at FindLaw.com. "However, the High Court issues its rulings as a collective body. While justices can and do issue individual concurring and dissenting opinions, court sessions are conducted without TV cameras and deliberations take place behind closed doors. So while the decisions often have significant and lasting impact, the justices themselves are generally not very visible nor well known to the public as individuals."

Could you pass the US citizenship test?

The court's chief justice was the most well-known, but even he could only be named by 20 percent of the 1,000 Americans surveyed by FindLaw.com.

Do you think you can name all of the Supreme Court justices? Take the quiz below and share your results in the comments.

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Andrew Burton/Reuters

Phil Fung, right, holds hands with Shawn Klein during their marriage ceremony in the Empire State Building in New York, on Feb. 14, 2012.

Support for same-sex marriage rose among voters of all political stripes in recent years, but it surged so much among Democrats that the partisan divide on the issue is wider than ever, according to a national survey released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center.

Sixty-five percent of Democrats are now favor same-sex marriage, compared to 50 percent four years ago, while 24 percent of Republicans are in support, versus 19 percent in 2008, the survey found. The gap between the two major parties stands at 41 percentage points.

“The latest national survey … finds that the partisan divide over gay marriage continues to widen,” the forum said. The survey also found that 51 percent of independents now favor gay marriage, seven percentage points more than 2008.

President Barack Obama’s announcement in May that he supported same-sex marriage -- the first American president to do so -- “rallied the Democratic base,” especially liberal Democrats, to the issue, though its overall impact on public opinion has been limited, the forum said.

“Reports that the Democratic Party may add support for gay marriage to its party platform are in keeping with a significant shift of  opinion on this issue among Democrats nationwide,” the forum report said.

The report noted that there had been an increase in support for same-sex marriage across several demographic groups who had opposed it in the past: African-American support is up to 40 percent from 26 percent in 2008, while 28 percent of those who attend church at least weekly back it, compared with 23 percent in 2008.

In May, a Gallup poll found that 50 percent of Americans believe same-sex marriage should be legal and bestow the same rights as traditional marriage, compared to 48 percent who don’t.

 “This year's results underscore just how divided the nation is on this issue,” Gallup said at the time.

Six states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage, while 31 states have constitutional amendments that effectively ban it. Plaintiffs in several lawsuits challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act -- which defines marriage as between a man and a woman -- have asked the Supreme Court to hear their case in the high court’s next session.

The Pew Forum survey of 2,973 adults was conducted from June 28-July 9 with a margin of error of 2.1 percentage points. 

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