Is Gay Marriage Inevitable?

Ben Smith at Politico has a column that looks at the question posed in the title of this post and the conclusion is basically, yes, gay marriage will one day be more or less universal in the USA. There are no legitimate constitutional reasons to deny equal marriage rights. The sole opposition to the concept boils down to two words: religious discrimination. Fortunately, the older Neanderthal generation is going to die off and the younger generation has a 180 degree different view of gays and gay unions. Unlike the oldest generations, they support it by almost the same percentage that the reactionaries oppose it. As the column notes, even a Republican pollster concedes the inevitable. Yes, LGBT equality saw set backs this year, but time is on our side, Therefore, it is safe to assume that we will see even more hysteria on the part of Christianists who in their hearts know where the trend of history is headed. Sadly, most do not care that their legacy will be to be viewed as the equivalent of the segregationists of the 1950's and 1960's. Here are some highlights:

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The movement to expand marriage to include gays and lesbians has gathered force from the perception that it’s a historic civil rights battle and that its foes are, as advocates often say, on the “wrong side of history.” That’s a message that has animated supporters, silenced opposition — just one New York legislator, for instance, stood up to explain his “no” vote — and generated its own momentum. It has also penetrated broadly into the culture, said Democratic pollster Diane Feldman, whose surveys have found a solid majority of Americans view same-sex marriage as inevitable “and are variously pleased [about] or resigned to that.”
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His argument and that of other gay marriage advocates is fundamentally demographic. “It is a historical inevitability, if for no other reason than the old people will eventually die, and the young people are overwhelmingly in favor of it,” said David Mixner, a veteran gay rights activist.
And a review of recent polling and conversations with political operatives and pollsters on both sides of the issue suggest that same-sex marriage still benefits from deep support among younger voters.

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But polling on the issue suggests that support for same-sex marriage is just part of a bundle of attitudes unlikely to change with age. “There’s a lot of things that go along with support for same-sex marriage — attitudes such as awareness that people are born gay,” said Feldman. Young voters’ “underlying attitudes about gay people and gay rights are very different” from older voters’, she said.
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Many Republican analysts privately agree. “It’s only a matter of time,” said a prominent Republican pollster, who declined to be named for stating a view that runs contrary to those of many of his clients. “Once the dam bursts, which is going to happen, it’s a process that won’t be stopped.”
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So Maggie Gallagher and similar haters - many of whom are enriching themselves in the process - can crow for now. But the day will come when future generations view her and her allies as bigoted monsters. That's certainly not how I would want to be remembered in history books of the future.