If you want to know what the future holds, talk to young people. On social issues, young American adults today are far more liberal than their parents. The majority support gay marriage (50 percent in favor versus 36 percent against with the remainder undecided.)
Many young people cannot understand why their elders are so hung up on the issue on religious grounds. They greet the marriage of Democratic Congressman Barney Frank to long time partner Jim Ready with a yawn.
In future generations, barring a seismic shift in opinions, it seems inevitable that opposition to gay marriage will age and die out whereas support will mature into a substantial national majority.
From the point of view of establishing a democratic majority that favors gay marriage, the future seems to be a foregone conclusion. So what has happened in this country that has pushed young Americans to the opposite side of the gay marriage see-saw from their parents?
Why young people support gay marriage
There is no single reason why young adults are overwhelmingly in favor of extending full marriage rights to homosexuals but there are many plausible possibilities.
To begin with, anyone who was born in a world of greater racial equality has been educated to view racial discrimination as immoral. This "affirmative action" perspective is transferable to other categories of people who can be harmed by discrimination. Of course, the gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered lobby has been active in promoting this message, particularly on college campuses.
There is widespread appreciation that a homosexual orientation is not a choice. Indeed, homosexuality is now understood to be biologically predisposed in much the same way that heterosexuality is (1).
Although scientists continue to work out the details, it is now hard to doubt that homosexuality is predisposed by genes, or prenatal hormonal influences, or both (1). Of course, the prevalence of homosexual behavior in many different species of birds and mammals points in the same direction (2).
Having been exposed to such scientific information from an early age, young people are generally not persuaded that homosexual conduct is simply a lifestyle choice analogous to choosing volleyball over football. (Why anyone would ever opt for being a member of a discriminated-against minority has always stretched credulity on this issue).
Perhaps we should not forget that sexual behavior has changed greatly over the decades. Today, relatively few people marry their high school sweetheart and stay married to the same person for life. So the conventional heterosexual ideal that religious conservatives promote as the way to live is more honored in the breach than in the observance.
Bluntly phrased, religious conservatives promote a form of marriage that has not been typical of the majority for decades. Indeed, sexual relationships have become so fluid that marriage is becoming less relevant whether it is gay or straight.
Most young people no longer require a religious union to sanction their sexual behavior. That is not just because they are more liberal in sexual matters. It is also because they are becoming distinctly more secular (4). So the arguments of gay marriage opponents are falling on deaf young ears.
Sources
1. LeVay, S. (2010). Gay, straight, and the reason why. New York: Oxford University Press.
2. Roughgarden, J. (2005). Evolution's rainbow: Diversity, gender, and sexuality in nature and people. Berkeley: University of California Press.
4. Barber, N. (2012). Why atheism will replace religion: The triumph of earthly pleasures over pie in the sky. E-book.
The message should be: "Wed him before you bed him"
Victory may be inevitable, but it is by no means over.
The kids today have a head start on that one, and are fast dissociating from 'em, knowing the spectacle before their eyes.
It's a crazy thing called, "evolution", that seems to upset the self-inflicting minority. Yes, I said that.
Unfortunately, my partner and I will be dead by then.
So let's just accept the inevitable right now, okay?
Firstly, by calling it 'gay marriage' on the lead up to equality, what makes us think that it won't be 'gay marriage' after equality? That marriages involving gay people won't be seen as, and called something different. Once equality is established, the law will call it marriage, but will society?
Secondly, I never get the whole choice argument. Even if it was a choice, that still does not justify or gives grounds for discrimination. Choice or not, nothing makes discrimination or inequality okay.
On the other hand, when it really *isn't* necessary, (such as "Shane and Jason are married") that's different.
This is not the time to relax. The work of talking to neighbors and coworkers, has to continue until the victory is fully won. Many teams have lost a game because they stopped playing when they got ahead.
Conventional wisdom says that people get more conservative as they get older, but there is research that says the opposite is in fact true - when it comes to social issues. So it looks fairly likely that these changes in attitude will be permanent.
I hope so. I suspect, however, that there will be several attempts to undo the progress, and, just as I once warned women of my acquaintance not to take contraception as granted, I warn people against thinking this will end without a few more very ugly skirmishes.
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=biological+causes+of+homosexuality
Some of them are from religious institutions, attempting to refute the others, of course. But the vast majority of the articles say that, yes, there is a biological cause. That is about as well proven as things get in natural science. Most questions are considered "settled" by the time there are a couple dozen articles.
A preponderance of studies have shown that the timing of hormones impacts the brain of the fetus and some of those hormones impact orientation.