Trends

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

An interesting finding in recent polling on social issues. I'll let this piece give the details:

Americans are now evenly split on same-sex marriage: 47 percent support marriage rights for gays and lesbians, and 47 percent oppose them. That stalemate won't last long—critics of gay unions are dying off. According to a new report from the Public Religion Research Institute, only 31 percent of Americans over age 65 support gays getting hitched, compared to 62 percent of Americans under 30.

But strong millennial support for gay marriage has not translated into an uptick in acceptance of other sexual freedoms, like the right to an abortion. The Public Religion Research Institute notes that popular support for keeping abortion legal has dipped a percentage point since 1999, and young Americans are not swelling the ranks of abortion rights supporters. Today, while 57 percent of people under 30 see gay sex as "morally acceptable," only 46 percent of them would say the same thing about having an abortion.

The institute calls this a "decoupling of attitudes." Support for same-sex marriage and abortion rights have traditionally gone hand-in-hand, and that's changing. Though young people today are "more educated, more liberal, and more likely to be religiously unaffiliated" than their parents—all factors traditionally correlated with support of abortion rights—they are not actually more likely to support abortion.

The article goes on to give some reasons as to why this decoupling is occurring, but I believe the issue is much more simple than that - gay marriage, as it is, has been a reality for millennials (folks ages 19-29) for most of their politically/socially aware lives now, and they see quite clearly how the issue really doesn't matter - gay people getting married doesn't impact their straight marriages, or their lives at all, really. There's no harm involved. The difference with abortion is that the harm involved remains self-evident - at the end of the day, we know how many abortions occur, and such "decoupling," as it were, likely reflects that difference. I also speculate that many do not see the abortion issue as one of "rights," but rather one of life. That those who self-identify as pro-life remains competitive ideologically with those who self-identify as pro-choice for the first time in a while may be a sign of that.

Why do you think these issues are separating? Should they truly be falling under the same social umbrella? What am I missing here?

Comments

Re: OFFICIAL WARNING

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

Just so I'm clear, who is this addressed to? I'm assuming the person whose posts are screened, but I just wanna be sure.

Re: OFFICIAL WARNING

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Awdrey_gore is the one who this is addressed to. However, having seen how you went through this situation, I'd say you have half a card too (if that's even possible, duh). Which is to say, well, be careful. This is not the first time you've lashed back at someone and I doubt it'll be the last, but I'm open to being proven wrong, at least once.

Re: OFFICIAL WARNING

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

I understand you may not agree with what I said, but I'm not going to lay down and let people walk all over me. I'm not the slightest bit dumb (though I may be ignorant on some things, admittedly) and I don't need to be treated as such.

Re: OFFICIAL WARNING

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying you shouldn't respond. I'm saying the way you respond puts you into the gray area, too, along with the one you're responding to. Fighting with pigs in the mud, and all that.