Research conducted by pollsters on both sides of the political spectrum indicates that a majority of Republicans under the age of 30 support marriage equality.
Analysis of national polling data by Dr. Jan van Lohuizen, George W. Bush’s 2004 lead pollster, and Joel Benenson, President Obama’s lead pollster in 2012, reveals that 51% of twentysomething GOPers believe gay couples should be allowed to marry.
The report, commissioned by national marriage-equality group Freedom to Marry, looked at polling and exit polls from the November elections.
“What a great affirmation of the changing tide in the Republican Party,” says 26-year-old Tyler Deaton, director of New Hampshire Republicans for Freedom and Equality. “We’ll continue to push for equality, knowing that the future of our party depends on full freedom in marriage.”
“Our generation values marriage for all committed couples— it makes our families and our nation stronger,” says Republican strategist Margaret Hoover, 35. “GOP leaders need to bring the party in line with the next generation—and the American people— to continue to lead us forward.”
A 2011 poll by the Public Religion Research Institute reported that 49% of Republican millennials favored marriage equality, while a similar study in 2012 showed Republicans 18-44 were evenly divided on the issue. Today’s news, coupled with the recent Supreme Court amicus brief filed by dozens of prominent Republicans, does seem to suggest a sea change in the Grand Old Party.
But will Republican leaders—all of whom are safely over 30—read the writing on the wall or continue to pander to the dwindling base of haters?
You make the call:
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Shane
Ar you kidding me? If you vote Republican, you do NOT “support” same sex marriage. Quite the opposite.
2eo
@Shane: The facts support the assertion, spot on, there is no conceivable way anyone supportive of our community could vote Republican. The “blanket” issues the right leaning people use such as the economy and immigration are much of a muchness between the parties with Obama taking a moderate right centrist approach to the deficit.
They can’t even use that as an excuse any more.
MuscleModelBlog.com
I have seen this first-hand. I know many young (early-mid 20-something) Republicans who are surprisingly open-minded when it comes to social issues. They just have more conservative viewpoints when it comes to money.
Like I said in another post, I don’t understand why fiscal conservatives see the need to “join forces” with social conservatives…does this go back to Reagan and the “Moral Majority”?
1EqualityUSA
The Supreme Court Justices the Republicans appoint are religiously militant. Clarence Thomas is a follower and has a bitter, angry, resentful spirit. A loner who can’t think for himself. He is disingenuous. The Pope’s hands are up the robes of Alito and Scalia. For these three alone, The Republicans need to suffer politically.
2eo
@MuscleModelBlog.com: Try actually living with conservative fiscal management. We here in the UK are being battered by the tories, working people getting screwed and openly starting to privatise the NHS under the guise of “austerity”.
The GOP model has failed spectacularly, the US economy [well, the whole world] is in the toilet, but put a GOP idiot in charge and you’d be us, and with your manufacturing base verses our largely service economy you’d be absolutely ultrafucked.
Funny how austerity translates to massive tax cuts for the rich in the minds of conservatives.
Mr. Enemabag Jones
Give ’em 10 years, and they’ll fall inline with the rest of the anti-gay Republicans.
viveutvivas
Supporting gay marriage doesn’t save them from being a-holes.
John Doe
40 – 50 years ago you couldn’t tell the difference between Democrats and Republicans on gay issues. As a whole society was exceedingly anti-gay in almost every way back then. Life then was nothing like what today’s youth see.
Republicans are obviously several years behind the Democrats in changing their tune on LGBT rights. Change is happening, but SOCIAL conservatives will be the last group to transition. Eventually I believe that they’ll accept legal equality as much as they accept other issues that were once religiously controversial (like no-fault divorce and interracial marriage).
Democrats still have a ways to go too. At least in my state we still have Democrats that do not support marriage equality. But, we have a handful of Republicans that do. My guess is that in 10 years we’ll have over 50 – 60% of the entire Republican party supporting FULL legal equality and over 95% of the Democratic party supporting FULL legal equality.
I support “evolving” on this topic regardless of what party you’re in. Like I said, both parties were extremely anti-gay 40 – 50 years ago. When I was growing up the world was very different. Today’s youth fortunately get to see change happening. This WILL be the civil rights issue of this generation.
brent
@Shane: What does that mean? If i live in Maine what is stopping me from voting for Romney and for gay marriage. It sounds like you don’t approve of the republicans in other ways, like economics and of course being a liberal you think all gays have to agree with Obamanomics.
brent
@viveutvivas: So republicans who support gay marriage are still a-holes. Then how would you deesribe blacks and hispanics in california who voted for Obama and for prop. 8. Are they a-holes
brent
The worst nightmare for liberals is for the republicans not to be anti-gay. That means they won’t have a bogeyman anymore. I’m looking forward to the GOP being more pro-gay, then i won’t have to vote for politicans i don’t agree with on other issues. I won’t have to vote for democrats who push that global warming silliness or that ignorant keynesian economics. And no humans do not control the weather, and wind and solar do not work.
John Doe
@brent: You said:
“I’m looking forward to the GOP being more pro-gay, then i won’t have to vote for politicans i don’t agree with on other issues.”
I understand this. That being said, I’m utterly disappointed with both parties. The reasons are far too numerous to mention. Suffice it to say, I consider myself an independent and have a very difficult time voting in each election. I would have likely voted for Huntsman if he would have been up against Obama. He seems level headed, was for civil unions (and now full equality) and has experience with China. At the same time I think that an individual like Ron Paul would have severely shaken up the increasingly troubling status quo in Washington politics.
Shane
@brent: It means that if someone running for office wants to keep me from having the same civil rights and freedoms that other Americans enjoy, then that tells me all I need to know about that candidate. It speaks volumes about the candidate’s character and his or her’s thought processes, not to mention the financial implications it carries with it. In other words, it’s a deal-breaker. It’s like being a Jewish Nazi or black KKK member. Sorry, but some of us have an aversion to voting for the party who hates our guts. To be gay and vote Republican is RIDICULOUS.
miniskull
Well, no matter how progressive young Republican they can be, the fact that is: their leaders are nothing but a bunch of greedy, racist, sexist, homophobic old males who are willing to stomp on everything, even their own family, to get their ways. And I don’t expect the apple would fall far from the tree either. Majority of young GOP are injected with this denial of “systematic racism or sexism” that they can’t see gap between white and other minorities.
Cam
They will fall in line with the party.
Even Republicans who have announced support for gay issues shut up the second they are told to.
This may foreshadow a change years in the future, but that will just put the party 20 years behind the rest of the country.
viveutvivas
@brent, yes.
Cam
@brent:
Brent,
the perpetual victimology that you gay republicans continually cry out gets old.
I get that it somehow makes you feel excited to see yourself as a rebel who goes against the grain , but the facts are….
Years ago there was not much difference between the parties on gay issues, MANY gays voted republican. However, since that time the GOP has shown us too things…
1. They are not a fiscally conservative party, as was shown the last time they controlled all three branches of Govt. Not only did they take us from a surplus to a deficit in one year, they tripled the military budget without increasing troop size, most went to Projects that the Pentagon said it didn’t want or need, but were the pet projects of lawmakers campaign donors. This was followed by the complete collapse of the U.S. economy under Bush, Bush pushing through the TARP bailout and 800,000 jobs lost every month.
2. The GOP went from not just being unsupportive of gay rights to an all out attack on gays.
Whatever your beliefs you don’t get to claim innocence on what you support. If I voted for a politician who thought that women shouldn’t be allowed to vote and that blacks should be slaves because I liked his views on NAFTA I don’t get to say to women and blacks….”Gee, I’m such a victim, you’re picking on my because you are narrow minded.”
No gays fear a GOP that supports gay rights any more than a child with one abusive parent and one loving one would fear having two loving parents. But in your world if you can’t play the victim I guess you feel you don’t have an identity.
Nickadoo
I predict that the majority of mainstream Republicans will make every effort to remain silent on this issue. They’ll continue to dodge questions regarding their position on marriage equality by insisting that it’s not an issue that’s of importance to Americans and attempt to switch the conversation to the economy, terrorism, defense, etc.
When pressed further, they’ll throw around all of their trusted catch phrases, such as, “I respect the will of the people” and “I intend to uphold the Constitution,” without directly addressing their actual position on the matter.
They’ll continue to use coded words and phrases like “values” and “special interest groups” to shore up support among the base, but avoid appearing openly antagonistic to gay rights. They can no longer win on a national level simply by being anti-gay, but they’ve painted themselves into a corner where they aren’t going to win the support of their party by being pro-gay any time soon.
I also think the far-right wing of the Republican party will continue to elevate their more radical anti-gay members to prominence over the next ten to twenty years, particularly throughout the south.
We’re also likely going to see Evangelical white Christians attempt to strengthen their alliance with black and Latino churches in an effort to diminish the GOP’s reputation as the party of old, white men.
Defining marriage as the union between one man and one woman likely won’t officially be stricken from the party platform until at least 2030.
1EqualityUSA
Nickadoo, the tea leaves you are reading sound so insiderish.
brent
@Shane: You say you wouldn’t vote for someone who would not give you the same rights, then you say gays should not vote republican. You seem to think candidates in each party all have the same view. Five years ago Dick Cheney was more progay than Obama. Yet i doubt you would vote for Cheney over Obama.
brent
@miniskull: TALK ABOUT STEREOTYPING
brent
@Cam: You know it’s possible to vote for the candidate, not the party. If gays voted in the republican primaries like i do, the republican party wouldn’t have leaders that are anti-gay. But i suspect liberals do not want the republicans to be more pro-gay. Liberals feel entitled to all gay votes.