Some 45 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage, which 46 percent opposed, reports a new Pew Research poll. That’s compared to last year’s findings of 37:54% last year, 42:48% in 2009, and 39;51% in 2008. Nine percent of this year’s respondents marked “I don’t know” when asked if they support it. [Pew]
survey says
More Americans Support Gay Marriage Than Ever Before: 45% Want Wedding Invitations
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kernelt
let be honest polling is often incorrect and misleading when you look at the inconsistency of responds when questions are asked differently.
Francis
The question asked here was simple. Do you agree with gay marriage, yes or no. Looking at all the polls, and even the ballots where we’ve come up just short, this is basically a 50-50 issue now in America. Luckily, our 50 is generally made up of people under 18, and 18-32. The future is on our side. However, right now, the bigots have more power because they are the ones who hold most of the powerful positions, and because it’s the older folks who tend to go out and vote. Which is why we need to be stronger and influence our base to vote for and support equality even stronger.
scott ny'er
@Francis: u make sense. And I really, really, really hope that it’s true. Less for gay marriage, more for general acceptance of LGBT people as just plain people.
DJ
Things are only going to get better with time. With each generation, kids start to rebel and turn away from their parental religious brain washing and start becoming more spiritual and independent.
TheRealAdam
@DJ: I’m afraid that’s really not true.
The tendency is for children to gravitate away from their parents views, no matter what they are.
The presumption that you and Francis are making is that the parents are more on the conservative side, and the children, more liberal. But that is not always the case. Often, parents are liberal and children become more conservative. So, you cannot necessarily count on younger generations to be more liberal and accepting of gays and gay rights. It doesn’t work that way.
Moreover, young people are not a uniform group. Their social and political views are just as diverse as their elders. Just because they’ve grown up with more gay visibility, doesn’t make them pro-gay, which is an extremely flawed assumption advocates like to push.
The situation regarding acceptance of GLBT will take a very, very long time. It will not be solved once the old bigots die off, because new ones can and will take their place.
Damien
@TheRealAdam: Personally speaking, as a 20 year old, I see a stark difference in gay support from older generations in comparison to mine. I’m sure there are numerous studies showing that younger generations are in fact more supportive of gay marriage than older ones as well. A quick Google search lead me to this graph:
http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2009/06/future_trends_f_1.html
YetAgain
Damien : My own experiences tell me the same thing. I think (and this is only my own guess) that younger generations are more familiar with gays so it’s not such a “strange” thing to them anymore. I don’t know if it’s because more famous people have “come out”, or regular people…maybe both. Even younger folk who make fun of it, or aren’t too crazy about the idea, don’t see it as such a “far out” “other” exotic thing anymore. My straight younger brothers’ and sister’s friends don’t seem to think anything either good or bad about my boyfriend and I. At least they SEEM to treat us the same, or better than, as everyone else.
YetAgain
But TheRealAdam has a fair viewpoint too. I’m just speaking about what I’ve observed myself, generally.