[Carnivale Ed]

Originally Posted by Sock Puppet

I think you're giving them far too much credit. Those who vehemently oppose gay marriage are entirely too solidified in their worldviews to change them that drastically, even years down the road. Maybe a few will, but I suspect most will continue to beat their sorry drums until their dying breaths. If/when gay marriage is on the same legal footing as hetero marriage, those vehemently opposed will use it as further evidence of the decline in "morals," and will manage to see it as evidence of "repression" of their beliefs, as a bonus.

I guess when I said this, I was thinking of the civil rights movement and school integration. My understanding is that many people, even those vehemently opposed to it at the time, now regret their actions. These would be people who genuinely thought their way of life was being threatened, people who didn't know any better, for lack of a better term. Bigots just because they lived in a bigoted society, as it were.

Because he's a politician, he's probably not the best example (too prone to flipping positions depending on which way the wind's blowing), but George Wallace is the probably most well-known of people I'm talking about. This guy stood on the steps of the University of Alabama to symbolically bar the enrolment of black students and, yet, years later, fully apologised and reversed his position, becoming an advocate for integration. He was even elected governor again with substantial support from the black community.

My thinking is that many people are against gay marriage because they fear the unknown. If it's ever shown to them that their fears are baseless, then it's entirely possible that they'll drop their resistance to it.