First published February 2, 2005, in the Chicago Free
Press.
College freshmen's attitudes toward legalized gay unions seem to
have been influenced, at least temporarily, by the dire warnings
emanating from last fall's Republican presidential campaign and the
controversies over state and federal constitutional amendments
barring gay marriage.
That, at least, is the most plausible conclusion to draw from a
survey of nearly 290,000 college freshmen conducted during freshman
orientation last August and September by the Higher Education
Research Institute at the University of California, Los
Angeles.
Although the annual survey chiefly collects demographic
information and education and career plans, it also includes 16
statements about social and academic issues that the freshmen are
invited to agree or disagree with. Two of those statements relate
to gay unions.
In the fall 2003 survey, 59.4 percent of the freshmen agreed
with the statement, "Same-sex couples should have the right to
legal marital status." But in the 2004 survey, just released at the
end of January, that support fell slightly to 56.7 percent, a
decline of 2.7 points.
The language "legal marital status" was originally developed
back in 1997 - when the statement was first added to the survey -
to delimit the meaning to the legal elements and avoid the
religious implications many people have with the word "marriage."
Nevertheless, it is possible that some freshmen interpreted the
statement to refer to religious marriage and responded
accordingly.
The other statement the freshmen were invited to agree or
disagree with was, "It is important to have laws prohibiting
homosexual relationships." In 2003, barely a quarter (26.1 percent)
agreed with that statement. But last fall, support climbed to 29.9
percent, a rise of 3.8 points. That was the largest single change
in support for any statement in the survey.
When that statement was added to the survey in 1976, it referred
to sodomy laws. Sodomy laws were still in force in a majority of
states while gay marriage, civil unions or domestic partnerships
were not even a blur on the horizon for most people. But now more
than a quarter century later, the statement is undoubtedly
interpreted to refer to so-called "defense of marriage" laws or
constitutional bans on gay marriage.
And in that light, while it is not encouraging that support for
such laws rose almost 4 points in the last year, it is not
surprising, and it is in a way encouraging that given the absence
of any nationally prominent political or religious figures actually
arguing for gay marriage, the change was as small as it was: More
than 70 percent of all freshmen still oppose such restrictive
laws.
There are two other factors that might contribute to the 2004
loss of support. One is religion. This year's student sample had
slightly more Baptists (up by 0.7 points) and Mormons (up 1.0
points), both extremely anti-gay denominations, and 0.6 points
fewer members of the United Church of Christ (a liberal
denomination).
In addition the sample was 1.9 points less Catholic, and
Catholics (unlike that church's hierarchy) tend to be more
accepting of gays and gay unions than many Protestant
denominations. In fact, support for gay "legal marital status"
actually rose slightly in 2004 among freshman men at Catholic
schools.
The other factor influencing the results was the polarizing
effect that the issues and the rhetoric of the past year's
prolonged election season seems to have had on young people as well
as adults. Those may have increased unease about gays and lesbians
among conservative-leaning moderates.
The number of students describing themselves as politically
"middle-of-the road" fell to 46.4 percent, its lowest point in more
than 30 years. The percentage describing themselves as "liberal" or
"far left" increased 2.5 points to 29.5 percent and the number
describing themselves as "conservative" or "far right" increased
1.5 points to 24.1 percent.
If "defense of marriage" laws were taken to be part of the
conservative package, and for many they probably were, then the
24.1 percent who are conservative or far right constituted the vast
majority of support for those laws. But that also means that almost
none of the "middle-of-the road" students supported "defense of
marriage" laws - specifically, only one in eight.
One interesting sidelight is that although women have always
been more supportive of gays than men have by at least 15
percentage points - and that was true again this year - the decline
in support among women was slightly greater this year than among
men.
One possible interpretation is that young heterosexual women
feel more invested in the idea of marriage than men do and respond
more readily to claims that the institution is under attack. This
may not be reasonable, but how many fears about gays are?
On other issues: 58.6 percent think colleges should ban racist
and sexist speech, but only 43.7 percent think colleges have the
right to ban extreme speakers. More than half (53.9 percent) think
abortion should be legal but only 37.1 percent think marijuana
should be legalized and only 33.2 percent think the death penalty
should be abolished.
****
Author's note: I have corrected a small statistical error in
the original print version.