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February 5, 2004

youth support gay marriage

On the very day when newspapers are covering the Massachussetts court decision that mandates gay marriage rights, CIRCLE and the Council for Excellence in Government released new polling data on young people's attitudes toward gay marriage and other rights for homosexuals. The story we tell is compelling: "By six-to-one margins, American youth support gay rights and protections related to housing, employment, and hate crimes and those sentiments are held by all ideological, partisan, racial, geographic, and religious groups. One out of two respondents said they know someone who is gay; knowing a gay person has a significant impact on attitudes." Also, a majority supports gay marriage.

I think these findings should affect the political calculus--to a degree. In the 2004 election, opposition to gay marriage is probably the safer political course (although morally wrong, in my view). But those politicians who oppose gay marriage today are likely to look foolish in 2024, when today's youth predominate. I wonder whether fear of looking ridiculous in the history books will temper anyone's opposition to gay marriage.

Posted by peterlevine at 10:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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