NYT columnist Charles Blow points us to an eye-popping new survey by the Gallup organization, a survey that shows new and convincing majorities of Americans who no longer hold moral objections to gay and lesbian people. This is what a specific piece of bigotry losing its power looks like:
1. For the first time, the percentage of Americans who perceive “gay and lesbian relations” as morally acceptable has crossed the 50 percent mark. (You have to love the fact that they still use the word “relations.” So quaint.)
2. Also for the first time, the percentage of men who hold that view is greater than the percentage of women who do.
3. This new alignment is being led by a dramatic change in attitudes among younger men, but older men’s perceptions also have eclipsed older women’s. While women’s views have stayed about the same over the past four years, the percentage of men ages 18 to 49 who perceived these “relations” as morally acceptable rose by 48 percent, and among men over 50, it rose by 26 percent.
Blow’s article goes on to speculate on why this change is happening, but it is just important to mark that it is. So when you see the GOP double down on anti-gay and lesbian rhetoric this election season (hidden behind opposition to the repeal of DADT), you will know why. They are losing one more group of people to demonize — which is ground zero of their perpetual campaign of resentments. And that is something to be applauded.
ps. Anybody know of any good Culture War images? Could find one to tag this post with….