Support for same-sex marriage by age and state

by thecodepounder on November 22, 2009 at 11:09am

The data supports the notion that younger people are more supportive of gay marriage than older people. I also think it’s interesting that, even in states that we normally consider quite hostile to gay rights (the ones at the bottom of the table), there is still a significant age difference: 18-29 year-olds in Alabama, for example, are more supportive of gay marriage than people 65 and older in Massachusetts. So, while we like to think about states as “liberal” or “conservative,” spreading out the data by age tells a much more complicated story.

Bob Cringely often points out how it generally takes a generation for the widespread adoption (80-85%) of any new technology or technological advances. How many of you had internet access (as opposed to AOL or CompuServe) or even an email account in the early 90s? (I did, but then I’m a “computer guy”… who likes to digress!) How many of you have parents and/or grandparents who still don’t?

Obviously, circumstances are quite a bit different when it comes to social change; for one thing, the time scales can be much, much greater. But, and I’m just spitballing here, I’ll bet that the graph showing support for interracial marriage by age and state would have looked very similar to this some 50-60 years ago.

Encouraging is the fact that only twelve states–sadly, most of them Southern states–show less than majority support for same-sex marriage among 18-29 year olds.

[via Daring Fireball]

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