In the past few days there has been a great deal of movement in the march towards marriage equality. On Monday, CBS News released some very interesting polling data suggesting that sentiments towards gay marriage have been shifting remarkably quickly in recent weeks.

Forty-two percent of Americans now say same sex couples should be allowed to legally marry, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds. That's up nine points from last month, when 33 percent supported legalizing same sex marriage.

Support for same sex marriage is now at its highest point since CBS News starting asking about it in 2004.

Twenty-eight percent say same sex couples should have no legal recognition - down from 35 percent in March - while 25 percent support civil unions, but not marriage, for gay couples.

While these numbers do not tell us everything -- specifically, they do not indicate how voters would come down on the issue if presented with just two choices, gay marriage or not, rather than combined with the third option of civil unions -- they do indicate both that support for marriage equality is growing at a rapid pace and that two-thirds of Americans believe, at the least, that same-sex couples should not be denied the rights afforded to heterosexual couples.

It is not only the case that public sentiments are changing on the issue. Legislation continues to move through states to forward the cause of marriage equality. Here's the Portland Press Herald:

The Legislature's Judiciary Committee voted 11-2-1 today in support of a bill to allow gay marriage in Maine.

Eleven members voted in favor of the bill, two voted against it, and one voted to send it to referendum.

And here's WMUR:

The New Hampshire Senate has approved a bill that would allow same-sex marriage in the Granite State.

After surviving an early vote to kill HB 436, the bill passed the New Hampshire Senate Wednesday afternoon by a vote of 13 to 11.

New Hampshire's Democratic Governor, John Lynch, has indicated that he is not in favor of gay marriage -- though he has also not said that he would veto the pending legislation, so it remains possible that we will see at least one more state, and possibly even two, join the ranks of Iowa, Vermont, Connecticut and Massachusetts in recognizing same-sex marriages.