Never let them tell you that nothing ever changes in politics.

In 1996, just 27 percent of American adults believed that the law should recognize same-sex marriages.

A decade later, at about the time the U.S. Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage legal in all the land, support was at 46 percent, with the opposition still holding on to a solid majority.

Last year, it was 69 percent in favor, 29 percent opposed — an almost perfect reversal of where the issue stood 28 years before.

There was no precipitating event of the kind that has driven other massive swings in popular opinion, in the way that 9/11 changed opinions on the threat of terrorism or how the financial panic of 2008 altered the view of the banking system.

And yet, I am unaware of any shift of similar size on a difficult social issue in such a short period of time, especially in a successful cause; not desegregation, not women’s rights.

Was it "Will & Grace" leading the way toward a new conception of gay Americans? A savvy new approach by same-sex marriage proponents? A backlash against efforts to enshrine restrictions in other states after the Massachusetts Supreme Court allowed it in 2003? Generational shift caused by the passing of the Silent Generation and the ascendancy of the more culturally permissive baby boomers?

All of that and more no doubt played its part in the most successful social movement of my lifetime — a movement so successful that conservative Republicans now take pride in the fact that the new Treasury secretary is a gay, married father of two. A dozen years ago, the progressive Democrat newly sworn in as president was publicly opposed to gay marriage. What a whirlwind romance.

As the success of the gay rights movement was reaching its zenith, transgender rights emerged among activists as the logical next step for the cause. Many of the notes were the same as when the gay rights crusade began at the end of the 1960s: a marginalized minority pushing an unpopular cause against a dominant culture uncomfortable with the change. Fighting for transgender adults to live with peace and dignity seemed a just cause for what, by then, had expanded to be known as the LGBTQ community.

There were many avenues for the new effort, including those less controversial ones, like the successful bid to extend equal rights protections to transgender workers and citizens. Others, like the fight to obtain gender reassignment medical treatments for minors without their parents’ permission, have faced stiff and growing opposition.

But it has been in sports where we have seen the highest profile battles play out. Arguably the most famous transgender American is Caitlyn Jenner, formerly Bruce Jenner, Kardashian stepdad and the greatest track and field star of the 1970s. When ESPN celebrated Jenner in 2015 with an award named for tennis great and civil rights hero Arthur Ashe, it was a signal moment in the story of America’s transgender movement.

The trip from there to the brutally effective closing ad from President Trump in the 2024 election — “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you” — tells a story that is very nearly the opposite of what happened in the fight for marriage equality in the previous decade.

A new poll conducted for The New York Times by Ipsos found relatively little enthusiasm for Trump himself as his second term gets underway, and staunch opposition for some of his pet projects, like the three-quarters of respondents (including 58 percent of Republicans) who opposed Trump investigating or prosecuting his political opponents.

But on a host of issues, like mass deportations of recent migrants, international disengagement and rooting out government waste, Trump’s agenda had supermajority support, including substantial numbers of self-identified Democrats.

No area shows a more stark or bipartisan alignment than transgender issues.

While a big plurality of 49 percent agreed with the statement “Society has gone too far in accommodating transgender people,” the majorities on specifics were sky-high.

Pollsters asked: “Thinking about transgender female athletes — meaning athletes who were male at birth but who currently identify as female ... do you think they should or should not be allowed to compete in women's sports?”

The response: 79 percent of respondents, including 67 percent of Democrats,........

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