Why we will win

Apropos the dissent and schism at present vexing the Episcopal church, Frank Kirkpatrick, a professor of religion at Trinity College in Connecticut, says the following:

"I absolutely think there will be a strong and vibrant Episcopal Church left. Look at the number of people in their 20s, 30s and 40s. The vast majority don't (care) about whether someone is gay or straight. ... As the older people begin to die off, the rage and passion will begin to disappear."

And that is exactly why we gays will win full civil rights and why, despite set backs, we are winning even now. Death is the great expunger of bigotry. According to the CDC's morbidity and mortality statistics, slightly less than 1% of the American population dies each year, mostly old people. According to surveys, the strongest anti-gay animus is found among old people. If you look at surveys which track attitudes toward gays in relation to sodomy laws, job protection, hate crimes law, civil unions and marriage over many years, you discover that the decline in animus against gay people tracks almost exactly the 1% death rate: every year as more old people die, the social climate for gays improves. We gays will win simply because the older generations are mortal and soon will be no more.

One hesitates to put the case so bluntly; death is not something to celebrate. And one does understand that when they were young, today's elderly (if they knew anything about gay people at all or even thought of them) knew gay people only as loathsome sinners or as criminal perverts or as mentally and emotionally ill people. So they were told by the church, by the state, and by medical science. I don't forgive their prejudice, but I do understand its origins.

Nonetheless, the fact is this: as older generations dwindle, the better life becomes for gay people. How nice and encouraging it would be to attribute the considerable progress gays have made in the last generation to our ability to appeal to the reason and fairness of our fellow citizens; how nice it would be to have reasonable and fair fellow citizens. But the real truth is otherwise: (1) the older generations (unlike their own parents and grandparents) have failed to transmit their prejudices against gay people to their own children and grandchildren; (2) the older generations have run out of time.