The Next Generation - What they think

[WillParkinson]

Neff: If not now, later
Lisa Neff
By Lisa Neff, columnist, 365gay.com
12.08.2009 9:01am EST

We’re not talking about my generation.

Those of this generation, born in the 1990s and 2000s, may have no first-hand recollection of Ellen DeGeneres’ coming out on network TV. To them, DeGeneres is the openly lesbian comic/actress who likes to dance and who lent her voice to a charming regal blue tang named Dory.

They know Madonna as a mother.

They know HIV/AIDS, to some degree, as a disease that can be managed with drugs and is not a death sentence.

They know terms such as “safe space” and “gay-straight alliance” and they know classroom lessons about the consequences of bullying.

But probably today’s teens and tweens don’t know that they are different from a generation 20 years ago.

The 3.8 million-member Girl Scouts of the USA last week released “Good Intentions: The Beliefs and Values of Teens and Tweens Today,” a report from the Girl Scout Research Institute and Harris Interactive.

Pollsters surveyed 3,263 girls and boys in grades 3-12 to update a landmark 1989 survey for the Girl Scouts organization, which, by the way, is not affiliated with Boy Scouts of America and does not practice the same discriminatory policies as that youth group. Pollsters also conducted a Web-based survey of girls and their mothers, as well as organized six focus groups to gain further insight into their findings.

Read more: http://www.365gay.com/opinion/neff-if-not-now-later/