title: Growing support for gay and lesbian equality since 1990.
abstract: Since 1991, public acceptance of gays and lesbians has grown dramatically. We use two approaches to examine changing attitudes in U.S. survey data. First, we conduct cohort analyses showing that both generational replacement and period effects are having impacts. Since 1991, older, less accepting generations of Americans have been dying and being replaced by younger, more tolerant Americans, and all age groups have been becoming more tolerant. Second, we pool cross-sectional, time series survey data to show that there has been a broad, dramatic increase in virtually every group's acceptance of gays and lesbians over time.
authors.affiliation: Department of Political Science, California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Keleher
authors.forename: Eric R A N
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002961:Civil Rights; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D063509:Homophobia / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology / Q000639:trends; D018452:Homosexuality, Female / Q000523:psychology*; D018451:Homosexuality, Male / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology / Q000639:trends; D008875:Middle Aged; D011057:Politics; D011639:Public Opinion; D011640:Public Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends; D012922:Social Change; D012944:Social Support; D012945:Social Values; D055815:Young Adult