Students Rally for Same-Sex Marriages (Barf Alert!)

LA Times ^ | 5/30/04 | Jessica Garrison

[wagglebee]

About 100 teenagers — armed with ear-splitting screams and hand-lettered signs — rallied Saturday in Westwood in support of marriage for same-sex couples.

"It's important for everyone to be able to live the way they want to," said Kate Heller, 16, a student at Winward School in West Los Angeles.

Two teens from Winward's new Gay-Straight Alliance, Sarah Freed, 17, and Joe Goldman, 14, organized the Federal Building rally, which drew students, gay and straight, from high schools across Orange, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, along with parents, teachers and a fluffy white poodle.

John Duran, mayor of West Hollywood, where three of five council members are gay, listened to the cacophony of cheering youths and honking car horns and smiled in amazement.

"They are part of changing America," he said.

Polls show that young people are far more likely than their elders to be in favor of legalizing gay marriage. A 2001 study of high school seniors found that 66% favored allowing same-sex couples to marry.

On Saturday, 16-year-old Stephanie Gross compared the push for gay marriage to the struggle against segregation.

"It's part of something a lot bigger than any of us," she said as she helped make posters with phrases such as "Love Is Marriage."

Earlier this month, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, a move that state's Supreme Court authorized in November. Closer to home, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in February — and stopped March 11 when the California Supreme Court halted the practice. California's highest court has begun hearing arguments about whether Newsom had the authority to permit the marriages.

[Kuksool]

Increase in support for gay marriage can be attributed to greater tolerance among whites. Minorities are still solidly against it. The gay rights movement is largely a white concept. Homosexuality is taboo in Black/Latino/Islamic circles. Very few minorities march in gay pride parades. Even if gay marriage becomes legal in all 50 states, there is no guarantee that it will last, especially when minority communities become the majority in America.