The Rate of Change of Public Opinion on Selected Human Rights Issues

Source: The Economist

The graph shows that there were similar rates of change in American public opinion on school desegregation, marriage between blacks and whites, and same-sex marriage, but the public opinion relative to abortion has remained fairly constant at 50 to 60 percent favorable for decades.

I don't know if my opinion means much, but it seems to me that we have separation of church and state. If a religious institution wants to define marriage in its own way, it is free to do so. Civil law marriage seems to me to be about a single act defining a number of conditions simultaneously, some of which could be done by individual legal instruments (wills, powers of attorney, designation of heirs, etc.) and some of which require "marriage" (inheritance under social security, parental rights, etc.) I am with the majority of Americans favoring same-sex marriage, although perhaps it is time to reconsider some of our public policies. Thus I think a same-sex couple raising children is more similar in terms of social security to a male-female couple raising children than it would be to a male-female couple with two earners and no children.