New polling has showed that half of people in the Czech Republic support same-sex marriage.

The poll, which was released by the CVVM agency this week, showed that support for gay marriage rights has risen steadily in recent years.

49 percent of respondents said they supported same-sex marriage with 47 percent saying no.

Three quarters (75 percent) of Czechs said they supported the right of same-sex couples to have legal recognition in the form of registered partnerships, which are already legal in the country.

With even more support than marriage rights was adoption. 59 percent of respondents said they would allow same-sex partners to adopt each other’s children, and only 39 percent were against.

Despite these positive figures, a majority still opposed gay and lesbian couples’ right to adopt children in general, with 49 percent against and 44 percent for.

This is still a considerable increase from ten years ago, when only 19 percent supported it.

Another question asked Czechs whether they thought gay people would face issues when coming out – 51 percent said they thought it would, and 40 percent said it would not.