Last week I wrote that gay marriage is a generational issue. I argued that over time, as generations shift, opposition to gay marriage will become a thing of the past, an anachronistic viewpoint that will one day be as dated as Don Draper's marriage. Today I noticed this handy illustration which bolsters my point (from Lisa Wade, via Matt Yglesias):
Basically, the graph shows a significant difference in attitudes toward gay marriage between people aged 65 and over and younger demographics. The support gap between the oldest and youngest people surveyed is mostly between 20 and 30 percentage points. When viewed in the context of off-cycle elections, where older voters vote in much higher proportions than younger ones, then the data help explain why the Maine vote failed last week.
