THE FUTURE NOW

For anyone in a movement for modest social change, the attitudes of college students are often salient. They are the future, and although they may get a little more curmudgeonly as they age, their current attitudes predict something of the future of our culture. Good news, then, from my point of view, that a solid majority of college freshmen now back civil marriage rights for gay men and women. The Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, conducts an annual survey of over a quarter of a million freshmen – a hefty sample – and asks a whole variety of questions. Last year, 56 percent backed gay marriage rights outright. There’s a gender gap – with men less supportive than freshman women, 47 to 63 percent – but the majority for equal rights is now clear and growing by about 2 percent a year. More interesting, from my point of view, is that Catholic colleges show higher levels of support for civil rights than others. Almost 62 percent of freshmen at Catholic colleges back equal marriage rights. I’d like to think that’s because Catholic colleges put such a high premium on thinking rationally rather than emotionally and on following one’s moral conscience. And the movement for equal dignity for gay men and women in their lives and loves is a moral and rational crusade before it is anything else.