Happy Friday! Americans are increasingly comfortable with gay men and lesbians openly serving in the U.S. military, according to a new
Washington Post-ABC News poll.
As The Eye as Post polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta report in today’s Post, public support for allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly now
far outpaces that in the spring of 1993, when Congress and the Clinton
administration established the policy.
Two trends stand out for The Eye:
Support for repealing the policy diminishes with age: Among those under age 30, 81 percent favor allowing gay people who disclose their
sexual orientation to serve, compared with 69 percent among seniors.
This pattern did not exist in the 1993 poll; then, about four in 10
across age groups backed open service.
And as you can see below, knowing a gay person makes a big difference: Among those who report having a friend or family member who
is gay, 81 percent support allowing gay people to serve openly,
compared with 66 percent who do not know someone who is gay.
I long for the good ol’ days, when sex was not discussed in public. I’m still baffled as to why anyone would want to publicly discuss their sexual orientation.