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The Nation's Pulse
The Millennial Divide
What explains young Americans’ divergent views on homosexuality and abortion?
On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its Roe v. Wade decision, creating a constitutional right to abortion and legalizing most abortions nationally.
Later that year, the board of trustees of the American Psychiatric Association voted to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder.
These landmark decisions helped to catapult abortion and homosexuality to the forefront of the culture wars, where they have remained for four decades.
Interestingly, the public’s views on abortion and homosexuality have diverged significantly over the last 40 years — and that divergence is being driven by the changing views of young Americans.
In 1977, American public opinion was divided evenly on the question of whether gay sex should be criminalized, with about 43% of the country believing it should legal and 43% believing it should be illegal, according to Gallup.
By the mid-’80s, Americans had actually grown more conservative on homosexuality, probably in part due to the belief that the emerging AIDS epidemic was caused by gay sex. In 1986, 57% of Americans felt homosexual relations should be illegal, while only 32% felt they should be legal.
Americans’ views slowly changed over the next quarter century. And by 2011, 64% of Americans believed gay sex should be legal.
On gay marriage, the change in public opinion has been more dramatic. In 1996, the first year Gallup began polling the question, 27% of respondents said same-sex marriage should be legal, while 68% said it should not. By 2012, 50% of respondents supported same-sex marriage, while 46% opposed it.
The near-doubling of support for same-sex marriage has been driven by young people.
A 2011 Public Religion Research Institute poll found that while only 31% of Americans over age 65 supported gay marriage, twice as many, 62%, of Americans under 30 supported it.
Even young Republicans have become more supportive of same-sex marriage. A Pew Research Center for the People and the Press poll found that the share of Republicans age 18-to-29 that supports same-sex marriage grew to 37% in 2012, from 28% eight years earlier.
America has shifted left on many cultural issues — not just on homosexuality and gay marriage but also on the acceptability of contraception, pre- and extra-marital sex, divorce and out-of-wedlock birth. But on abortion America remains stubbornly ambivalent.
In 1995, Gallup found that 56% of Americans identified as pro-choice, while just a third called themselves pro-life.
But at the moment Americans began to become more accepting of same-sex marriage, they were also becoming more pro-life — and, again, that change in sentiment was due to the changing views of young people.
In the 1970s and ‘80s, most polls showed young Americans were the least pro-life of any age cohort.
About the Author
Daniel Allott is a writer in Washington, D.C.
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PJ| 1.22.13 @ 7:39AM
Bottom line for why the youngsters are for same-sex marriage: Mom & dad love one another & got married. Why can't homosexual persons who love one another, get married?
There's no one to honestly tell them that a heteosexual marriage creates the optimum environment to raise generally normal children. And in addition for Bible-believers & other God-fearing persons------God says so!
Derek Leaberry| 1.22.13 @ 7:41AM
The youth of today have swallowed the pro-degenerate propaganda of Hollywood and the public schools. Moral attitudes have been shown the door. Christianity is condemned. In the end, it really didn't matter who won the 2012 election. A country that wallows in the gutter has no future. Collapse is inevitable.
GobBluthe| 1.22.13 @ 7:42AM
It will be interesting to see how Justin Beeber's prolife views impact today's Tweens when they get older.
My theory is women who were 15 or older prior to 1973, are probably still the most pro choice. They remember what it was like when abortion was illegal. Youngers have no recollection of such a time and are thus less prochoice. For the record I'm prochoice for liberals. They make the worst parents and raise criminals. They should get free abortions.
Al Adab| 1.22.13 @ 8:23AM
Forty years of moral relativism has taught Americans that there is no moral absolute; that all moral beliefs are co-equal and simply a personal not a cultural or necessary choice. Indeed, even the belief that all cultures are likewise co-equal has infected the thinking of the two generations coming on line.
Without a moral compass; without a strong community sense of right and wrong; without a government which recognizes that moral absolutes do in fact exist and fails to recognize them the citizenry is condemned to drift wherever the leaders may chose to take them,.
Derek Leaberry| 1.22.13 @ 8:56AM
Well said.
JP| 1.22.13 @ 8:47AM
I think William Buckley and the late Joe Sobran had the best idea concerning gays. They thought that every gays should have the follow aphorism tattooed on their buttocks "Abandon all hope ye who enter here."
C. Vernon Crisler | 1.22.13 @ 9:30AM
Most Americans, including young Americans, are basically followers of the political philosophy of Stephen Douglas, the concept of popular sovereignty. Let people decide on their own whether abortion or gay marriage is okay.
7-08| 1.22.13 @ 10:34AM
Makes sense to me.
Pecos Pete| 1.22.13 @ 10:35AM
Let the states decide.
Rockabilly| 1.22.13 @ 12:08PM
The same for polygamy, incestuous marriage, and on and on?
C. Vernon Crisler | 1.22.13 @ 12:28PM
One of course expects the Lincoln-haters to side with Douglas's political philosophy.
Petronius| 1.22.13 @ 10:33AM
Most sheeple will believe anything to be accepted.
fmm| 1.22.13 @ 10:38AM
It surprises me that you think the two ideas are exclusive. One can simply be against abortion because it takes lives. Gay marriage can not give rise to a new life and therefore can not contribute to abortion rates. On this basis support of gay marriage is completley consistent with a pro-life stance.
Bob K| 1.22.13 @ 12:11PM
They both are consistent with genetic suicide.
fmm| 1.22.13 @ 1:08PM
I may agree that support of gay marriage would be consistent with social, but not genetic, suicide. Seems to me that pro-life support is counter to any kind of suicide. Guess yor reasoning processes are too deep for me.
Bob K| 1.22.13 @ 5:19PM
I can see your confusion because I was talking about Abortion Rights and I should have made a clear statement of that. After all that was at the heart of Margaret Sanger's reasoning, was it not?
Since there is no possibility of reproduction in a gay marriage the genetic suicide argument is also valid.
Bob K| 1.22.13 @ 11:59PM
It all began with Sanger's idea of Genetic Genocide and has ended up with the Genetic Suicide of White America's Upper Class!
C. Vernon Crisler | 1.22.13 @ 12:29PM
What about man-horse marriages fmm?
fmm| 1.22.13 @ 1:05PM
You will note that I did not take a position on either, my previous posts would make that clear for any who have cared to read them. Just gave an example of possible out of box thinking. Of course, I am probably giving too much credit to most people. But, there are more reasons for doing something than most of us ever take time to consider.
Peppermint Tea | 1.22.13 @ 12:02PM
So sad. So True.
There really is a connection between the morals of a nation (and its leaders) and their condition. Think of the (gay, abortionist) President and his party. Read about how this time things will be worse in THE GREAT DEPRESSION CHECKLIST on amazon.
Peppermint Tea | 1.22.13 @ 12:05PM
My "so true" comment was meant to agree with Derek Ledberry above, not the fmm.
But it is true that gay lifestyle cannot create new life. So why do they pretend marriage? And lobby for it? Only for our stamp of approval on their degeneracy. I'm not giving it.
fmm| 1.22.13 @ 1:10PM
Seems my post caused someone to do some thinking.
JP Jones| 1.22.13 @ 12:28PM
Actually Gays should be allowed to get married.
Physically Handicaped folks can get married
as can mentally challanged folks.
so why not allow folks with sexual disorders to get married?
No reason what's so ever.
The only exclusion would be that Places of Worship should not be allowed to go against their belief system.
C. Vernon Crisler | 1.22.13 @ 12:30PM
How about we reinstitute slavery again?
Hardcard| 1.22.13 @ 1:31PM
soros
JP Jones| 1.22.13 @ 1:47PM
If the Supreme Court uses the ADA
to legalize Gay Marriage with an exception clause for Houses of worship everyone wins.
The Gays get to marry
and those that oppose it will be vindicated that Homosexuality is in fact a sexual disorder but folks that suffer from such afflication cannot be discriminated against in anyway including if they choose to marry.
The question is do five Justices on the current Supreme Court have what it takes to bring the hammer down once and for all and end this debate?
A decision like that would rock the Earth
10 times the mega power of Obama's Greek Pedistals from 2008 Election Night.
Stormy| 1.22.13 @ 2:35PM
Is the author saying that the AIDS epidemic of the 70's and 80's was not a consequence of gay sex practices? If it was not, was was the cause?
JP Jones| 1.22.13 @ 8:49PM
The whole anti Gay program has missed the point.
What Gays don't want is to be told they have some form of disability.
The focus should be to call a spade a spade.
And do it with Kindness.
Most folks would agree that no one with any affliction should be discriminated against.
By programing schools to accept Gay Life Styles as normal has been a powerful tool for the Gay Lobby for decades.
Millions of Americans should sign petetions stating clearly that once the Gay Population accepts their illness they the signers will grant them their right to Marry via the ADA.
Trust me that if this ever caught fire the Gay Lobby would be quaking in their boots because Marriage equality is not the key here but rather having us buy into their lifestyle as being normal and not deviant to the basic laws of nature is.
Once again I say allow the Gays to Marry as soon as they fall under the ADA.
stmichrick| 1.23.13 @ 9:31AM
Now more than ever, indoctrination by leftish educators and smarmy pop culture have conditioned the young in the 3 virtues of progressivism; state-mandated financial compassion, moral non-judgmentalism and the notion that their generation is wiser than those that have gone before. History be damned.
obadiah| 1.23.13 @ 6:50PM
There is a big difference between the abortion question and the gay issue. Part of the abortion issue is whether the state can outlaw abortion. Part of the gay issue is whether the state can outlaw or discriminate against gays. Libertarians can be pro-life and pro-gay while objecting to prohibitions and discrimination in both cases.