Professional homophobes such as the American Family Association, Concerned Women for American, the televangelist Pat Robertson and others raise millions of dollars every year based on the precepts that being gay is a “lifestyle choice” and therefore gay people are willful sinners who are not worthy of equal treatment under the law — and that the gay rights movement is a powerful threat that requires millions of dollars to fight.

However, if the findings in a new poll are accurate, these professional hatemongers have apparently lost credibility on the issue of “lifestyle choice” among a majority of Americans. Via RainbowZine, a new poll from CNN shows for the first time that a majority believes that gay people cannot change their sexuality:

Fifty-six percent of about 515 poll respondents said they do not believe sexual orientation can be changed. In 2001, 45 percent of those responding to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll held that belief. In 1998, according to a CNN/Time poll, the number was 36 percent.

In addition, 42 percent of respondents to the current poll said they believe homosexuality results from upbringing and environment, while 39 percent said they believe it is something a person is born with — a close division that reflects the national debate over the issue.

However, those numbers are greatly changed from the 1970s and ’80s, in which fewer than 20 percent of Americans said a person is born homosexual. In a 1977 poll, the number was 13 percent.

This shift in attitude is limited to within the vast majority of Americans who are not evangelical Christians, and it will unfortunately have no effect on the short-term ability of professional antigay activists to raise millions from their Christian extremist base.