Bent News, 9/30/11: Growing acceptance of gays/lesbians driven by younger generations
Growing acceptance of gays and lesbians, the upcoming Alaska Pride Conference and GLBT Youth Summit, and and more in this edition of Bent News.
(Based on @bentalaska 9/29 tweets and Facebook shares, with supplementation.)
Younger generations drive growing acceptance of gays/lesbians
- Trend toward acceptance of gays/lesbians is dramatic, says long-term survey. It’s been driven by youth. Youth? You rock! http://t.co/Mk4AMZAh # [Keen News Service]
The General Social Survey (GSS), conducted by NORC at University of Chicago, is a widely used source of information on social trends, second only to the U.S. Census — and it beats out the Census on many LGBT questions. For example, its been asking Americans their opinions about marriage equality since 1988.
The report “Public Attitudes Toward Homosexuality [download in pdf format], which was released on September 28 and is based on the 2010 General Social Survey, finds that Americans have been becoming “dramatically” more accepting of gay men and lesbians, and appears to confirm findings from other recent surveys that greater support of younger generations for basic civil liberties and marriage equality is behind the trend towards acceptance.
There remains “sharp polarization” of public opinion on LGBT issues— a polarization which has shown up in the data since the GSS started in 1972 — but according to Tom W. Smith, the report’s author, “despite the polarization, there is a strong trend towards acceptance.”
Alaska Pride Conference and Youth Summit
- AK’s 1st GLBT statewide Youth Summit (AK youth 14-18) on Oct 14-16. Rural youth encouraged to apply for scholarships! http://t.co/PnT8x65i #
- Want to display your stuff or sell your goods at the 2011 Pride Conference? Apply by Sep 30! — we’ve got the form. http://t.co/mSP4I2K9 #
Other tweets
- As if we needed further proof of DADT’s suckiness — Ann Coulter wants it back. (via @tlrd) http://t.co/VuGaaH5f #
- Minnesota’s antigay coalition casts itself as underdog but in 5 yrs outspent pro-LGBT groups 5 to 1 per @TPEquality http://t.co/gNgpajUV #
- FBX: still not decided on who to vote for Oct 4? News 13 has posted candidate interviews on video & other info. http://t.co/eCIBZyl3 #
- Gay news sites: Will your favorite still be there next year? (We hope Bent will be. We hope you hope so too.) http://t.co/We5o33T0 #
