It’s not just the gays on YouTube whose apathy is wholly responsible for your lack of civil rights! The middle-aged Baby Boomers are also F-ing you over as we speak, because they care more about landscaping their back yards and their tee times than your right to marry.
It’s not that the heterosexual graying, menopausal demographic doesn’t like you gays. They do! They keep you as friends and enjoy your company at brunch. But they exhausted their commitment to righting social injustices back in the 60s, when fighting the man also involved a fat blunt.
Now this group is part of the “yawning majority,” opines New Jersey’s Trentonian columnist Jeff Edelstein.
There’s a bill before the state legislature that would allow gay couples to marry. Lame duck governor Jon Corzine has pledged to sign the bill, should the legislature pass it. Governor-to-be Chris Christie opposes gay marriage. And as a result of this bit of political timing, the loud and obnoxious anti-gay-marriage lobby is getting ready to descend on the Garden State to campaign against it.
This is going to get loud and obnoxious.
As for me? Well, as you might infer from my writing thus far, I am for same-sex marriage.
Well, “for” might be a little strong. I’m more in the “couldn’t care less” category. You’re gay? You want to get married? Go for it. What do I care?
In fact, I’m about to coin a term, so get your term-coining apparatus ready. Remember Nixon’s “silent majority”? Well, there’s a new majority in town, a majority that’s probably about five or 10 years away from dominating the public discourse, and I’m calling them the “yawning majority.”
It’s basically Generation X, which all of a sudden is hitting middle age, and we don’t get too revved up on social issues. Basically, we are a giant “don’t ask, don’t tell” majority. Same-sex marriage? Yeah, sure. Marijuana for personal use? Knock yourselves out. We really don’t care.
That said, the “yawning majority” hasn’t yet taken over the country, so in the meantime, we’ve got to deal with people like Maggie Gallagher, the president of the National Organization for Marriage, who is a Yale graduate, newspaper columnist, and true blowhard. On their Web site, they say marriage between a man and a women is “common sense” and call the idea of same-sex marriage a “radical social experiment.”
So what will it take for for the group of Americans that find themselves adding “grandma” and “grandpa” to their list of roles to throw their weight behind gay rights? We could threaten to take away their AARP cards. Or, more effectively, threaten to cancel Two And a Half Men and The Horse Whisperer.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Pete
Queerty – since when is Generation X considered to be Baby Boomers?
That’s why they are called Generation X.
tc in nyc
Well, for the twinks who run this site, anyone over 29 is a baby boomer.
Attmay
Baby Boomers: Anyone born between 1946 and 1964
Generation X: Anyone born between 1965 and 1977
So yes, “Generation X” is approaching Middle Age, unless life expectancies have skyrocketed to 120 years.
dontblamemeivotedforhillary
Attmay is more accurate than your wildly inaccurate label-making machine. The eye of the storm of Generation X is 1966 to 1972 as a F.Y.I. if you read the book which created the tag though the author Douglas Coupland who eventually came out attributed it to Billy Idol’s original band, Generation X! It was the first Generation to largely have their dreams dashed while the Baby Boomers have spoilt the Y Generation AKA Generation Whine (born in the 80s and 90s though some have made the argument that they started around 1977) as a result of their Depression era cheap grand-parents. Aging tends to swing people to the right as they secure more taxable income and worry about retirement and medical affordability rather than a homeless shelter down the street. Perhaps the Millenials/ Generation Y/ I-Pod Generation/Obama Generation might make change but if history proves us correct, that is doubtful. Don’t hold your breath for a revolution unless there is a complete financial collapse of world markets which is very near possible. This current Generation HATE are no more susceptible to Gay Marriage unless they are exposed to friends comfortable enough to come out which increases with higher education and tolerance. Probably not, judging by epidemic of schoolyard bullying and the expectations that this Generation will be wiped out by AIDS by the time they reach 40 because there is no discernable reference point for the AIDS crisis except hearing about it and thinking there are pills to keep you alive forever when 50% are still dying of the virus who contract it within 20 years! I think the Apocalypse Generation might be the successor to the disgruntled Generation Xers as they will clearly have an altered way of life and an expiration date to the planet and every right to be the next Beat Generation of the 1960s who perhaps are dying rapidly from poor health choices (especially a Generation of Gay Men already gone!)
seanboy
the baby boomers who renounced their conservative parents in the 60s sold out in the 1980s and kept republicans in office and screwed the economy. that’s why we are where we are today. not surprised by the boomers’ apathy. they only ever really thought about themselves.
hardmannyc
So this guy is labeling an entire generation as uncaring about social issues. Um, isn’t he generalizing just a tad?