A Gallop poll surveying the number of American adults now self-identifying as gay illustrates the penetration of humanist ideals of tolerance, acceptance and freedom from the stigmatisation that religion inflicts on people, as they increasingly reject organised religions in an increasingly secular society.
Hopefully, the charts I have made from the data hop speak well enough for themselves, but perhaps the most noticeable aspect is how the younger the adults are the more likely they are to self-identify as gay. This is entirely consistent with other data which shows a marked correlation between age and rejection of organized religions, with the younger adults far more likely to self-identify as 'None' or non-affiliated. Very may of these will of course be Atheists or Agnostics.
It is clear that religions are losing their grip on Americans just as surely as they lost their grip on post-war Europeans, and no longer have ownership of the institution of marriage for example with even most 'moderate' Christian churches still opposed to the idea of same-sex marriages. Perhaps this is the explanation for the unedifying spectacle of the evangelical Christian abandonment of any pretence of morality in their desperate support for the odious, morally bankrupted Donald J. Trump and the sniff of political power and influence he gave them, amounting at time to hysterical, messianic worship.
The slightly sad thing, from my point of view is how far the 'Boomer' generation, of which I am one, moved from the liberalism of the radical 1960s, when we thought we were changing the world for the better by rejecting most of the old religion-inspired bigoted moral certainties, (For the Times They Were A'Changing) to become almost indistinguishable from their parent's generation in their attitude to their own sexuality. It is hard to believe that their real sexual orientation, as opposed to how they self-identify, would be radically different to that of their children and grandchildren.
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