Americans more accepting despite culture wars

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http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060320/OPINION03/603200308/1272

But the heartening reality is that, despite all the shouting about how America is being torn apart by culture wars, each new generation is more progressive than the one before -- more accepting of human differences, more willing to tear down walls that needlessly divide people.

National polls consistently show that's true about attitudes toward those of us who're gay: The youngest adults are the ones who most embrace our desire for full equality; the oldest folks are the most resistant.

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Pew named its report "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" after the 1967 movie in which a middle-aged white couple almost turns purple with shock after discovering that their daughter is engaged to a black man. Pew reports that 77 percent of Americans now approve of black-white dating. Approval is almost universal -- 91 percent -- among the youngest adults (born after 1976) but is just 50 percent among the oldest (born before 1928).

Back in 1987, the nation was evenly divided over interracial dating -- 48 percent approval, 46 disapproval. But in late 1991, as the nation was getting restless to shake off the past and finally give the keys to the White House to a baby boomer, approval surged to 66 percent, signaling a new day in race relations.

Today when extended American families sit down together, faces around the table are often different shades: 22 percent of adults say a close relative is married to someone of a different race. Interestingly, 34 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds say there's an interracial marriage in their family, yet only 14 percent of adults 65 or older say it.