Attitudes on issue came a long way in a short time

Back when Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher led the free world, before the Berlin Wall came down or the Internet rose up, homosexuals in the United States had no reason to believe they would ever say “I do.”

The year was 1988, and those who produced the General Social Survey of American attitudes on a wide range of issues decided for the first time to ask respondents whether gay people should be allowed to marry. No doubt this struck some as an odd question and perhaps many more as ridiculous. Gays married? Fewer than 1 in 10 said yes.

By the time the U.S. Supreme Court got around to ruling that

gays and lesbians could not be deprived of this basic human institution — its 5-4 decision was issued Friday, two years to the day after it knocked down the federal Defense of Marriage Act — the public was way ahead of them.

In a dramatic and recent reversal, an emphatic majority of Americans say the issue is a nonissue: Gays and lesbians have the same matrimonial rights as anyone else.

The turnaround in public sentiment may be the most remarkable in American history, say those who track social attitudes. The numbers vary slightly poll to poll, but they are consistent. Not long ago close to 60 percent of the public did not approve of legalizing same-sex marriage. Today almost the same number say it’s OK.

“This is rapid societal change — about as rapid as you could ever expect,” said Tom Smith, the principal investigator for the General Social Survey. “You are dealing with basic values and important institutions. This is the largest change we have observed in the 40-plus years we have been doing the survey.”

Few could have imagined the shift in 1996, just eight years after the question was first posed in the survey. That year Congress passed DOMA, expressly to forbid the federal government from recognizing a same-sex marriage for any legal purpose. President Bill Clinton signed the law, later saying he did so to stall momen- tum for a constitutional amendment that would have been hard to undo.

Spurred by social conservatives wary of growing gay activism, the hope was to nip any notion of same-sex marriage in the bud. Atotal of 31 states, including Texas, followed with legislation and constitutional amendments that not only limited marriage to heterosexual couples, but in most cases went to great lengths to stop recognition of same-sex marriages, or anything that resembled them, in the few states that allowed them.

Decision not a surprise

No more. Arguably the most notable political achievement of the Christian Right was made moot by Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion that said that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution demands that gays and lesbians be treated equally under the law because the decision on whom to marry “resides within the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.”

The decision was not surprising. Atotal of 37 states had already decided to authorize same-sex marriage, through court rulings, new legislative acts, or public vote.

“DOMA is going to be the (ruling) that changes things,” local blogger Michael Coppens predicted on the day the high court killed the federal law. “I don’t knowhow long it will take, but it’s going to happen.”

As it turned out, almost no time at all. The court’s DOMA decision laid the groundwork for successful legal challenges across the country. Again and again judges declared that the language of the ruling seemed clear and instructive .

Remarkably absent during the sudden turnabout was public outrage. Even some social conservatives and prominent Republicans were softening positions or giving up the fight altogether. More than 300 GOP elected officials, consultants and large donors filed a friend-of-the-court brief asking the Supreme Court to support same-sex marriage.

For Jon Davidson, who as national legal director of Lambda Legal that was engaged in many of the court battles over the years, the change in public thought came about for the simplest of reasons. More homosexuals became open about their sexual orientation. When they did, people began to realize that the “gay world” was not a mysterious parallel universe, and that those who populated it were their friends, neighbors, coworkers and sometimes family members.

How do you tell the friend who sits next to you at work or the father of a boy in your son’s Cub Scouts den that he has no right to want what you take for granted, Davidson said.

“It’s less an abstract question than a real question that affects real people that they know,” Davidson said. “It creates a cognitive dissonance, and that dissonance is one of the bigger factors in causing a change in opinion: I thought I knew this, and now I see it differently.”

What started with a handful of celebrities coming out in dramatic fashion — Ellen Degeneres’ announcement, albeit in character on her former TV comedy series, was among the first — escalated over the years. The group included politicians, athletes, TV journalists and musicians, and their ever-growing ranks made it easier for ordinary folk to emerge from the shadows.

“Knowing someone who is a member of a minority group helps create understanding,” said Andrew Flores, a fellow at the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School, which tracks gay issues. “But really, the story of these changed attitudes points to many causes.”

Thinking more deeply

Flores mentioned President Barack Obama’s changed position in 2012, which gave cover for other black leaders, including pastors, who have long been in the opposition camp. He also cited extensive legal wrangling over similar issues such as adoption by gay parents and their participation in long off-limits activities, such as Scouting and church leadership.

Also not to be overlooked, he said, is the amount of attention and debate gay marriage has received. If nothing else, that ongoing discussion prompted people to think more deeply about the reasons not to allow it, and for many to decide they did not hold much weight.

“Heightened attention to marriage equality increases how much people elaborate on marriage, which opens people up to persuasion,” Flores said.

That may bring them back to people they actually know who are gay or lesbian, people whom they otherwise would regard as little different from themselves.

Pastor Ernest Turney of Bering United Methodist Church calls it “putting a face” on the issue. The maturing Millennial generation already accepted their gay and lesbian peers without a second thought. When their parents realized that greater tolerance would not substantially affect their world, it was easier to tolerate a change in social norms.

“It has changed a lot in the last five years,” said Turney, whose Montrose church includes a large number of LGBT people. “The tone is different for sure. So many people now see that people they know are gay.”

Although evangelical leaders howled in protest over Friday’s ruling, they cannot claim to speak for most Christians. By 2011, polling showed that a majority of self-identified Christians support same-sex marriage. That number will only increase, as younger generations accustomed to a diverse world replace the older Americans who form the bulk of opposition.

Turney envisions a day when sexual orientation no longer divides congregations, or is even a serious topic of discussion.

“We’re not there yet,” he said. “Sooner or later we will be.”