If you want to know what the future holds, talk to young people. On social issues, young American adults today are far more liberal than their parents. The majority support gay marriage (50 percent in favor versus 36 percent against with the remainder undecided.)

Many young people cannot understand why their elders are so hung up on the issue on religious grounds. They greet the marriage of Democratic Congressman Barney Frank to long time partner Jim Ready with a yawn.

In future generations, barring a seismic shift in opinions, it seems inevitable that opposition to gay marriage will age and die out whereas support will mature into a substantial national majority.

From the point of view of establishing a democratic majority that favors gay marriage, the future seems to be a foregone conclusion. So what has happened in this country that has pushed young Americans to the opposite side of the gay marriage see-saw from their parents?

Why young people support gay marriage

There is no single reason why young adults are overwhelmingly in favor of extending full marriage rights to homosexuals but there are many plausible possibilities.

To begin with, anyone who was born in a world of greater racial equality has been educated to view racial discrimination as immoral. This “affirmative action” perspective is transferable to other categories of people who can be harmed by discrimination. Of course, the gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered lobby has been active in promoting this message, particularly on college campuses.

There is widespread appreciation that a homosexual orientation is not a choice. Indeed, homosexuality is now understood to be biologically predisposed in much the same way that heterosexuality is (1).

Although scientists continue to work out the details, it is now hard to doubt that homosexuality is predisposed by genes, or prenatal hormonal influences, or both (1). Of course, the prevalence of homosexual behavior in many different species of birds and mammals points in the same direction (2).

Having been exposed to such scientific information from an early age, young people are generally not persuaded that homosexual conduct is simply a lifestyle choice analogous to choosing volleyball over

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