Wow! Nineteen-ninety one!
First of all, I take from the gay union poll that Obama needs to pursue repealing DOMA’s provision that prevents the Federal government from recognizing unions. I think this should be a high priority as well. Secondly, the more I look into any civil rights issue (slavery, suffrage, marriage issues) the more it becomes obvious that the movements succeed by influencing generational changes in opinion, and few people actually change their mind once their political identity has formed. As you can see from both polls, there are obvious sharp generational shifts. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that interracial marriage was accepted by a majority beginning in 1991, but then skyrocketed in the next decade. That coincides with the 60s-70s crowd becoming the ascendant generation. Civil rights is just a war of attrition and for gay rights in general, the changes are occurring far faster than any previous rights movement and in twenty years these battles will look silly. I guess the gays really are after your children…just slightly different than the fear mongering context that statement normally has.
Actually I think one of the reasons why gay rights has had it so “easy” is that homosexuals are of all races and creeds, so once the relatively low bar of people admitting they were gay to friends was reached (I’m talking about in the grand scheme of things, it’s obviously hard for many people) then very quickly it became hard to think of it as “not normal.” I’ve certainly seen this reaction a ton in my own life.