Although the seemingly unstoppable march of cultural liberalism took pause during the years of Ronald Reagan and even into the 1990s, it is back on track. Liberals will applaud it and conservatives will dread it, but it is silly to deny its strength. [cont.] Stuart Rothenberg Read more »
Gay Marriage: A Country Is Moving, Its People Not So Much
In coverage leading up to and reporting on the Supreme Court’s decisions last week removing some obstacles to gay marriage, a persistent meme has been that Americans in the last few years are increasingly OK with same-sex marriage. The evidence cited is public opinion polling, like this Gallup poll that […] Read more »
As a Long-Term Political Issue, Gay Marriage Will Be More Like Abortion than Integration
… When people discuss the inexorable rise of support for gay marriage, they talk about it like racial integration. The supporters of Jim Crowe [sic] were routed: it became impossible to publicly support segregation, and the opposition eventually died or flipped. But there’s another possibility: that gay marriage is somewhat […] Read more »
Our Broken Social Contract
Many Americans think that their country has lost its way. But when they try to make sense of what’s happening, they disagree about whether the problem is essentially economic or whether it stems from cultural and moral decay. [cont.] Tom Edsall (Columbia U.), New York Times Read more »
In Gay Marriage Debate, Both Supporters and Opponents See Legal Recognition as ‘Inevitable’
As support for gay marriage continues to increase, nearly three-quarters of Americans – 72% – say that legal recognition of same-sex marriage is “inevitable.” This includes 85% of gay marriage supporters, as well as 59% of its opponents. The national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted May 1-5 among […] Read more »
The Global Divide on Homosexuality
As the United States and other countries grapple with the issue of same sex marriage, a new Pew Research Center survey finds huge variance by region on the broader question of whether homosexuality should be accepted or rejected by society. The survey of publics in 39 countries finds broad acceptance […] Read more »