"In future generations, the label
same-sex marriage will be abandoned, to be replaced simply by
marriage," U.S. District Judge John Jones
wrote in his marriage equality decision Tuesday, and a new poll from Gallup shows just how generational support for marriage equality is. The poll finds yet
another new high in overall support, with 55 percent in favor, and huge, huge margins among younger people.
That 55 percent comes despite the question wording "Do you believe marriages between same-sex couples should or should not be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages?" Yet 55 percent of people say yes despite that rightward slant of the invocation of "traditional marriages." Young people are leading the growth in support to a remarkable extent:
The age group that has had the highest support for marriage equality all along is also the group whose support is increasing the most rapidly, and today's 27-year-old is going to be moving into the 30 to 49 age group in a few years, and so on. The future generation that will abandon the term same-sex marriage and just use marriage, in other words, is already with us, even if it's not yet controlling the language we use or the laws of every state.