College Freshmen Widely Support Gay Marriage

The Chronicle of Higher Education:

College students who describe themselves as politically "far right" arrive on campuses across the country supporting legal same-sex marriage significantly more than do conservative Republicans nationwide, according to new data released by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Twenty-four percent of the most conservative college students say that same-sex couples should have the right to legal marital status, according to the institute's most recent survey of freshmen, conducted last summer and fall. In the nation at large, 14 percent of conservative Republicans support gay marriage, according to a survey conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

Read the whole story: The Chronicle of Higher Education

Comments

[Mikeatle]

12:32 AM on 03/25/2010

I teach in an English department at a regional university in the southeast. Normally, we have a larger than average number of students who classify themselves as politically conservative and Christian. Even with the high percentages, I see the same thing happening. Students across the line support gay issues, including marriage and equal rights. It is both highly refreshing and conducive to optimism for the future of our species to be working with such enlightened young people.

[jjgg5]

10:00 AM on 03/18/2010

College freshmen know what their middle class parents don't: the reason for homosexuality is heterosexuality.

[Papasito]

02:51 PM on 03/17/2010

Interesting excerpts:

- Over all, 65 percent of the college freshmen surveyed last fall supported same-sex marriage, compared with 58 percent of Americans 18 to 29 years old and 39 percent of the population nationwide, according to the Pew research groups' study.

- Women were 72 percent supportive and men 57 percent supportive, compared with national rates of 43 percent for women and 34 percent for men, according to the Pew survey.

- Among freshmen, Hispanic students were 69 percent supportive, white students 65 percent supportive, and black students 53 percent supportive. Support among those groups in the population at large was lower: 45 percent among Hispanics, 39 percent among whites, and 26 percent among blacks.

-Students who identified themselves as Jewish, Buddhist, or nonreligious were most supportive, with at least 87 percent in each group favoring legal same-sex marriage. Sixty-six percent of Catholic students and 58 percent of Muslim students expressed support, as did between 50 and 75 percent of students affiliated with most Protestant Christian denominations.

[cjk002]

03:13 PM on 03/17/2010

Most surprising was the level of support among Latinos in the general population - higher than whites. We keep hearing from the Republicans that because Latinos tend to be very religious and family-oriented, it doesn't make sense for them to vote for Democrats. I guess they never bothered to ask Latinos what they really think.

[Papasito]

03:16 PM on 03/17/2010

We're pretty tolerant and the religion is pretty much left at the church, we're not fanatics like the Xtians here in the US. But look at the black people results... pretty dismal, especially considering they themselves know what discrimination is all about.

[cloudmaker]

01:36 PM on 03/17/2010

Fortunately for America, our young people have grown up in a far more tolerant society. So while the older generation of racists and bigots cling to their angers with bleeding fingernails, their children for the most part cannot see why they are so damned full of hate.

[Nosepuede]

01:11 PM on 03/17/2010

and eventually they grow up, mature, evolve and develop moral clarity. Life is a beautiful thing!

[cjk002]

01:20 PM on 03/17/2010

Support for gay rights and gay marriage has roughly doubled each decade since the 70's.

Based on the evidence, they grow up, mature, evolve, and show others what real moral clarity is. Sorry, but you have already lost this one.

[battlinbob]

01:37 PM on 03/17/2010

So has cancer and autism... Is it something in the water?

[Josh Seipp]

01:24 PM on 03/17/2010

Yep, what cjk said.

[gingersaff]

12:48 PM on 03/17/2010

It's been widely noted that being young tracks more closely with progressive political ideology and that as we age we tend to become more and more conservative. My parents, who are in their nineties now, began life as Democrats and staunch labor union supporters. Over time they've drifted further and further right until now they are racist Tea Baggers, unapologetically using the N-word to describe Obama and hanging on every word that Fox News 'analysts' say. I don't know why this is except to equate it to the fact that I no longer run up and down stairs because I don't want to fall and break a bone, or perhaps it's just that as we age we tend to accumulate more wealth and consequently want to hold on to it more tightly. It's a sad fact but these college students may one day spew venom about moral decline and have their votes swayed by homophobic rhetoric. I see no "news" in this at all.

[Josh Seipp]

01:25 PM on 03/17/2010

I'm glad to say my folks are still as progressive as they were back in the '60s.

[Craig 212]

01:35 PM on 03/17/2010

In other words, the GOP depends on senility.

[Papasito]

02:53 PM on 03/17/2010

LOL fanned.

[Fred Hood]

12:28 PM on 03/17/2010

the next generation........will turn this country around........from hate........ to compassion for others

[leftcoastindy]

12:27 PM on 03/17/2010

Almost anyone entering college and describing themselves as right wing woul be either very sheltered or lead very indoctrinated lives, ie religious finatics. Normal kids don't care about politics or are somewhat open minded at that age..

[sacklunch]

01:47 PM on 03/17/2010

Or just have plain old common sense.

[NotAlphaNotOmega]

06:10 AM on 03/18/2010

Not fancy sense?

[EthanLua]

12:11 PM on 03/17/2010

[pd33bkagn]

11:51 AM on 03/17/2010

The Darwin theory personified. Stay in a gay relationship, ergo: no children, next generation composed of children of people that are anti-gay marriage. Kinda like the beginning of the movie "Idiotocrocy".

[freelove416]

12:08 PM on 03/17/2010

You think gay people aren't having/raising children?

[StevenKeirstead]

11:45 PM on 03/19/2010

And siblings pass on genes for gay people who don’t have children. Also there are non-genetic biological influences on sexuality like hormone levels during development, birth order and number of male children born to a mother. Homosexuality was not invented by people, it’s widely seen in the animal kingdom, and has not died out there, so why would it be reasonable to predict it will die out in humans any time soon? We have learned a lot since Darwin! Evolution is not as simple as most people think it is.

[Barbie and Ken forever]

03:56 AM on 03/18/2010

What about infertile couples? Or straight couples who don't want to have kids? You ever though about that genius?

[SatinSheik]

11:37 AM on 03/17/2010

Oh really?
Let's see how they feel at Spelman

[kk78]

11:37 AM on 03/17/2010

I don't see what's so wrong with gay's getting married.. If you love someone enough and want to have a life together with that one person.. why not.

[whowhatwhywherewhen]

11:42 AM on 03/17/2010

HEY!!! That's too logical. None of that here, please. :)

[Barbie and Ken forever]

03:57 AM on 03/18/2010

This is a liberal website. Most people on here are logical and live in reality :D

[whowhatwhywherewhen]

11:26 AM on 03/17/2010

Yeah!!!! The next generation of leaders in this country are on the right track!

[UselessIdiot]

11:13 AM on 03/17/2010

Widely?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKWoPe_o82U

[dante2810]

10:49 AM on 03/17/2010

Bravo. A direct result of the information age.

When you have access to real info as we do now thanks to the internet, it is easier to research and see what the world really is like. Today's kids can go to school all week and learn something, then go to church on sunday and learn something (usually opposite what they learn in school) and then go online and do their own research and come to their own conclusion about it all. It used to be that things were taken as 'gospel' because a professor, new reporter or clergymen said it. Now even they know they can very easily be refuted if they attempt to give misinformation. It is a win win for all of us.
Whenever you have a belief system, be it political or religious, the worst enemy to that system is freedom of information.