(Image source from: lesbiannews.com)

A new poll has revealed that nearly 70 percent of Americans are either enthusiast about or comfortable with a candidate who is gay or lesbian.

The NBC-Wall Street Journal poll, released earlier this week, revealed that those under 35 years of age who said they were enthusiastic or comfortable with a gay candidate increased by 28 percentage between 2006 and now, up from 47 percent to 75 percent.

A majority (56 percent) of seniors said they did not have any objections about gay candidates, an increase from just 31 percent in 2006.

The LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community has seen public opinion shift in recent years on a range of issues, including equal rights and same-sex marriage, said The Washington Post.

Elliot Imse, the spokesman for the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a group that helps elect gay people to office, said that Americans' views on LGBTQ people in politics have changed with other cultural shifts.

"It's extremely exciting to see Americans become more supportive of LGBTQ candidates in the same way they're becoming more supportive of LGBTQ rights generally," Imse said.

"I think the two are very much trending in line with each other. As acceptance of LGBTQ people has grown, LGBTQ candidates can be open and honest about their lives from the beginning, allowing them to control the narrative and focus on the issues they want to talk about."

South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, is showing that a gay man can make a serious run for the presidency. In the first quarter of the year, he raised at least $7 million as he launched a presidential exploratory committee.

Earlier this week on Tuesday, a Democrat in Chicago Lori Lightfoot, a gay African-American woman was chosen as a Mayor in a historic election. Lightfoot describes herself as "an out and proud black lesbian".

When she is sworn in, she will be the first Mayor in the "Windy City" who identifies as a lesbian. She is married to Amy Eshleman and has a 10-year-old daughter.

-Sangam Sowmya