The Supreme Court has ruled that gay marriage is protected under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment, bringing gay marriage to the final 30% of the population.
It is interesting how gay marriage was accomplished and how fast it happened.
Support for gay marriage increased 2.5 percent per year since 2004, going from 32% support to nearly 60%. In 1991, when I graduated from high school, the idea of gay marriage was so unthinkable that pollsters didn’t even ask the question. The only poll done prior to 1996 was in 1989 and it found 12% of the nation in favor. In 1996, The Defense of Marriage act passed with 85% support.
In my opinion, the change has come so fast because of gay people telling their family and friends that they are gay. People needed to see “normal” people, who are also gay, to realize that we aren’t broken and want the same things from a relationship that they do. Here is a Gallup poll from 2009 to back up this opinion.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
-Margaret Mead
The change has certainly NOT come from brave leadership from politicians. The public stance of most politicians has carefully tracked opinion polls. Obama famously “evolved” to support gay marriage in May 2012. Clinton decided to support gay marriage in 2013, right after support in the general public crossed 50%. It is reasonable to suspect that both of them privately supported gay marriage before that (Obama signed a gay rights petition in 1996). But they certainly weren’t driving the change. They were just reacting to it.
There was one notable exception: Bernie Sanders. In 1996 he voted against the defense of marriage act. In fact, when he ran for governor of Vermont in 1972, his platform included the line: “Let’s abolish all laws dealing with abortion, drugs, sexual behavior (adultery, homosexuality, etc.)”
But I don’t think it would have made much difference if Obama and Hillary had championed gay rights. It could even be argued that it would have made things worse. If Obama had been pushing it, it might have become an entrenched political issue (like Al Gore and global warming).
I am happy the Supreme court decided to make gay marriage legal across the US. I do worry a little about a backlash against the ruling. But while it might have been better, in the long term, for the issue to have been resolved slowly state by state, it is certainly better to have it resolved now for the couples living in the holdout states.