ABSTRACT
If we look at the results of national surveys measuring societal acceptance of gays and lesbians, we get a rosy picture of increasing tolerance. For example, 48% of Americans in 2012 supported gay marriage, as opposed to 11% in 1988 (Smith and Son 2013). A 2013 poll even found that 52% of Republicans and conservative independents between ages 18 and 49 support same-sex marriage (Cohen 2013). Additionally, visibility and representations of gays and lesbians in US media have steadily increased from “almost no gay characters” before 1970 (Fisher et al. 2007) to 64 LGBT characters on scripted prime time television (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation 2014). Gay marriage is now legal in the US. It appears that we have arrived in an unprecedented era of tolerance for gays and lesbians.
