Red America’s Anti-Gay Backlash

Gay rights may be trending upward everywhere, but it in conservative America, things are moving very slowly—and sparking a ferocious reaction.

Everything is coming up roses for gay and lesbian Americans. Same-sex marriage, a political non-starter only a few years ago, now enjoys solid majority support in national polls. Federal judges are falling over each other ordering states to allow it. Yet instead of howling about judicial tyranny, the country yawns, and politicians who not long ago railed against gay marriage now scramble to change the subject. Today, unlike ever before, most Americans have openly gay friends, colleagues, and family members, and most approve of same-sex relationships. Young people are overwhelmingly gay-friendly, leaving little doubt which way the trends are going.

But roses have thorns. Every day, it seems, brings another news story about a prominent anti-gay statement or legal effort. If opponents of gay rights are supposed to be retreating into oblivion, they missed the memo. The counterculture, then, may be a national minority, but it draws support and sustenance from its bases in the evangelical world, the Republican Party, and culturally conservative states.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/15/red-america-s-anti-gay-backlash.html