Gay Community Going Mainstream

Although there's the constant drumbeat from the right to pass a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage (by defining it as between a man and a woman), the truth is -- homosexuality is becoming more and more mainstream every day. There may be more gay characters on TV than Latinos. Just a few years ago Ellen's sit-com was cancelled because of its lesbian content -- now she's a popular afternoon talk show host -- and everybody loves her. Who would have thought?

Well Gregory Rodriguez reflects on this changing state of affairs in an LA Times column (yes, I double checked after yesterday mixing George Will up with Garry Wills). He points to a study by UCLA demographer Gary Gates and then notes:

Gates' research on U.S. Census data drives home a point that the gay vanguard has been wrestling with for a while: The hedonistic, transgressive, radical ethos (and stereotype) that once characterized gay culture doesn't represent reality anymore. The decline of urban coastal gay communities, the increase in the gay population in the interior U.S. and the overall diversification of the gay population are facts. What's more, Gates argues, these trends are a function of the growing acceptance of homosexuality among the American public.

But what's really interesting is the growth of acceptance and the number of gays and lesbians coming out in normally conservative areas -- RED STATES like Utah.

Growing acceptance of homosexuality means a decline in social stigma associated with same-sex relationships, and a consequent shift in the politics of coming out. The more people come out, the more accepting people are around them, and the more accepting the public becomes, the more people come out.

Gates' study shows that the number of openly gay couples in the U.S. has quadrupled since 1990, and the biggest increases are in the country's more socially conservative areas.

Utah is the poster state. Between 1990 and 2006, for example, it went from having the 38th-highest concentration of same-sex couples in the country to 14th highest. In that same time period, the percentage of gay couples who lived in large cities declined from 45% to 23%. Even more counterintuitive, from 2000 to 2006, states that banned same-sex marriage had above-average increases in the number of gay couples. And places where voter referendums went against same-sex marriages saw even larger increases.

If all of this is true, then the future will be interesting. It also raises a question for the church -- which side of history will we be on? The future of the church may be in the balance!