SALT LAKE CITY — Mormon Alex Landers supports the legalization of gay marriage despite her religion’s opposition for a simple reason: She has LGBTQ friends who she loves and respects, including her best friend who is a bisexual man.

“I can’t look at him and his boyfriend and tell them that they can’t be happy and they can’t love each other,” said Landers, 20, of Draper, Utah. “Heavenly Father loves us for who we are. He wants us to be happy, as long as we’re treating people well and we’re being who we truly are and we’re not hurting anyone.”

She is among a growing number of young Mormons driving the faith’s gradual acceptance of same-sex marriages, even though the religion’s support still lags well behind national approval and those of Catholics, Muslims and Jews, according to the survey released by the Public Religion Research Institute.

The survey found that 40 percent of Mormons in the United States supported gay marriage in 2017, up from 27 percent in 2014.

Among Mormons between the ages of 18-29, the acceptance is 52 percent. That’s up from 43 percent in 2014.