USATODAY.com - Poll shows backlash on gay issues (USAToday, July 28, 2003): After several years of growing public tolerance, the survey shows a return to a level of more traditional attitudes that was last seen in the mid-1990s. Asked whether homosexual relations between consenting adults should be legal, 48% said yes, and 46% said no — within the poll's margin of error of 3 percentage points. In early May, legal relations were endorsed 60%-35%. Before this month, support hadn't been that low since 1996.
Of course.
That the country decided to swing back to the right on the issue is not in and of itself even mildly surprising. Mind, the sheer speed with which the country just whipsawed from "Oh, we think that maybe people ought to be allowed to do whatever they want to do in the privacy of their own bedroom" to "Ew. No. I just don't think so," is utterly blinding. Apparently, actually being confronted with the concept that people are now allowed to do what they like without the state having a say has made vast tracts of the country decide that perhaps chastity belts were not all that bad after all. Apparently, the country is only actually tolerant until its bluff is called.
Posted by iain at July 28, 2003 09:12 PM
