Summer's Been a Gay Ol' Time
Reprinted with permission by the author
NEW YORK (Reuters) - It's been a good summer for gays in America as court rulings, media coverage and TV shows have made being homosexual more mainstream than ever.
The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of gay sex and legalizing same-sex marriages seems possible in some states. The shifting tide of public opinion is reflected by major newspapers supporting the legalizing of gay marriages -- something Canada already opted to allow earlier this summer.
"Politically and socially it's been a very interesting summer," said Brendan Lemon, editor of the gay magazine Out, noting that the Supreme Court and Canadian decisions were huge wins for gay rights.
The surprise TV hits of the summer have been "A Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," where gay hosts give hapless straight men some style, and the gay dating show "Boy Meets Boy."
And New York has approved the nation's first public gay high school because it doesn't want young homosexuals bullied.
All this in a nation that in the 1960s grappled with the acceptability of interracial marriage and which was shocked in the mid-1990s by a lesbian kiss on the sitcom "Ellen."
But polls suggest Americans may not be ready yet to see gays having equal rights. A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll this week showed a backlash against the high court striking down sodomy laws.
Conducted last week, the poll revealed 48 percent of Americans support legalizing homosexual relations, down from a high of 60 percent in May before the Supreme Court ruling.
BACKLASH INEVITABLE
Zogby International pollster John Zogby said that backlash was almost inevitable.
"While there is more openness and a broader acceptability (of gays) among certain people as more and more people are coming out of the closet, that just drives the other side crazy," said Zogby, who believes greater media attention to gay issues hardens conservative Americans against gays.
Out's Lemon is not worried about polls. "What is more important is that the visibility of gay people, whether it be in politics, entertainment or day-to-day life has become much greater, and that is much more important," he said.
The future of American gay unions could be influenced by the top court in Massachusetts, set to rule soon on whether to legalize them in the state. And proposals to ratify a gay bishop and bless same-sex relationships will be debated at the U.S. Episcopal Church convention, starting on Wednesday in Minneapolis, prompting church conservatives to threaten a schism.
But a Pew Research Center poll taken in the last month shows most Americans still oppose gay marriages -- 53 percent against compared to 38 percent for -- even though support has risen in recent years.
Tom Smith, director of the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center, said public tolerance for gays was stagnant from the 1970s until the early 1990s. Tolerance has grown in the past decade, he said, but "There's still a majority who say (gay sex) is wrong."
It was not so long ago when coming out as gay in middle America was unacceptable, prompting many homosexuals to move to gay-friendly cities like New York or San Francisco. Now there are strong gay communities in places like Chicago, Minneapolis and Madison, Wisconsin.
Some gays who fled the rural Midwest to seek acceptance elsewhere are moving back home and refusing to return to the closet, said Tracy Baim, publisher of Windy City Times, a Chicago gay newspaper. Comparing the situation to the civil rights movements, Baim believes a "tipping point" is nearing when gays will have equal rights in America.
Zogby agrees, saying gay marriage is inevitable. And with American politics increasingly polarized, he sees gays playing a pivotal role in future elections.
"The next step is the gay vote and, if we are living with elections that are 50-50, and frankly we are, then anything that will tip the scale one direction or the other is going to play a more and more important role," Zogby said.
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