Why do anti-gay attitudes seem to start with people in their 30's?

[bluestateguy]

I invite you to look at the big PEW poll they just did on gay marriage. As expected, 18-29 year old favor marriage equality 58%-37%, but as soon as you get to the 30-49 age group, the numbers flip: 38% in favor, 53% oppose. Now maybe the bigotry starts with folks in their 40's, but I can't be too sure.

There does seem to be a generational cutting point somewhere in the 30's or perhaps early 40's at which point homophobic attitudes start to become much more apparent.

http://people-press.org/report/553/same-sex-marriage

[thunder rising]

1. Don't worry about worms eating your brain. It's a cohort thing.

[jobycom]

2. It might be that people growing up now have been more exposed to the idea

and are more able to understand it, whereas older folk grew up under the Anita Bryant mindset and are less likely to get it.

[ruggerson]

3. this lays it out from the link

[EFerrari]

15. There's somefin' funny about these results but I'm too tired tonight

to figure it out. The Hispanic support seems too high, the black opposition also too high. the Catholic support is too high, the Midwestern opposition too high, Independent support looks low. Is their sample too small? Something is wacky here.

[ruggerson]

16. the one thing loud and clear

is that the people who live closer to salt water have better functioning brainstems.

[EFerrari]

17. LOL! All right!

:woohoo:

[Reverend_Smitty]

4. I don't think it has to do with age in and of itself...

I think perhaps people under 30 grew up in a more tolerant world than people over 30. The gay rights movement in this country did not start until the mid 1970's, so I don't think it's much of a leap to think that someone born post 1980 would be more a little more sensitive to the issue.

[Juche]

5. When did the mainstream gay rights movement start in the US?

Roseanne did an episode about a gay bar where she had a lesbian kiss in 1994. Back then it was so controversial that the network almost didn't air it. Now there are mainstream shows devoted to and starring openly gay people.

I am guessing that for most people who are exposed to the concept that gays are human beings in their teens and 20s, the idea may sink in since people are still juggling and determining new ideas. But if you spend your entire formative years being told gays are disgusting deviants and only in your 30s (when your personality has probably crystallized) does society start treating gays decently, I guess it is harder to adjust to.

I'm surprised hispanics are so open to gay marriage according to that poll.

[Prism]

6. I don't think equality activism was really in our education system in the 90s

I graduated high school in 1997, and I couldn't name a single nearby school that had things like Gay-Straight Alliances, and I grew up in a pretty solidly Democratic area. Now, it seems like they're everywhere. I'm sure that has something to do with it.

Heck, Pedro Zamora wasn't on the Real World until 1993, and that was very much considered a huge thing at the time. An HIV positive gay man, living in the open, on a television show watched by young people!

Times have rapidly changed.

[LeftyMom]

18. Must depend on where you're from. I graduated a year later, and one my classmates was trans.

Nobody really gave her shit, because she was popular. :shrug:

[Quantess]

7. Unreliable poll, maybe?

[armyowalgreens]

8. I think you are misinterpreting the data.

It probably has nothing to do with aging but more to do with something specific to that generation.

[tomm2thumbs]

9. it's all the 49 year olds who answer polls - the rest hang up... give it a year

and they'll all be in the 50 bracket

[OHdem10]

10. A combination of things possibly.

The younger Americans have always been very open the idea
They possibly have been in contact with gays more and therefore
do not fear.

It could be several things with 30 somethings.
1. At this age they tend to have married and started a family.
This does things to you. Often this is when if they are
going to , seek out religion. Over the past 20 years a lot
of churches seem to come down against a lot of gay rights.
Being married with families, they move more in the company
of older Americans thann younger Americans. Curlural teachings
and practices are picked up.

Im reading and observation, there seems to be opinion that these
younger Americans will not follow the old rules.

Something has to be said, the 30 somethings do not see this
as burning issue and prefer to avoid political fights.

[Marr]

11. Another way of asking that question is, "why do pro-gay attitudes

start with people in their 20's?"

I think it's encouraging. Gay people are more accepted today than they were just 10 years ago, and the trend is a positive one.

[ruggerson]

12. I think it's largely because the first mass generation of children of LGBT couples

are now in their 20's. Their straight peers grew up with them, were best friends with them, and going over to your best friend's house, where the parents were a same sex couple became routine and normal.

There were also many more teens out in high school than in the 80's or earlier, so straight kids had gay friends as well, from early on.

[berni_mccoy]

13. This.

I agree with this assessment 100%. I also believe it is because it is more mainstream in the media content these age groups have been exposed to.

[SpartanDem]

14. Makes sense if you think about it

mainstream acceptable of gays began in the early to mid 90's that younger subset were in late teen early 20's compared to people were already in their 30's and likely to be less tolerant

[ezgoingrl]

19. I agree!

Younger people just accept homosexuality as being normal, just like some people have green eyes and some people have blue eyes, some people are gay.

[TexasObserver]

20. it's a gradual change in the 30-49 year group, based upon date of birth

There is no magic in the number 30 or the number 49.

Each year, the new crop becomes less and less homophobic. That's why we can feel pretty sure that gay rights are going to expand from here on, but only if young people work to outvote old people.