Same Sex Living

The data from a fourteen-year period has been collected and presented on the topic of “Explicit Support for Same-Sex Marriage by State and Age.” The time frame covers 1994 to 2008 and has been published in the American Political Science Review by authors Jeffrey Lax and Justin Phillips. Over this period of time, every state in the country, with the glaring exception of Utah, has expressed an increasing support for gay marriage. (Utah actually indicates less support now than five years ago!) Some states have large increases and others have small ones, however, they do express positive gain.

Additional demographics indicate the support percentages for differing age groups. The big winners here for supporting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community are the eighteen to twenty-nine year olds across every state in the nation. The lowest percentages of support are in the sixty-five and up age group. Lest we be too harsh with the golden age citizens, their lives, opportunities and experiences do not include even the option of discussing LGBT issues during their earlier years. Had the “world been a different place” in their youth, they would likely score higher all these years later!

The largest explicit support for gay marriage geographically comes from Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire, Maine, California, Washington, and Hawaii, in that order. The lowest percentages of citizens supporting gay marriage live in Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Utah, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama coming in dead last.

For additional info, please visit

http://baselinescenario.com/2009/11/04/same-sex-marriage-and-time/