Footnote to the preceding

Stateline.org has a good backgrounder on the status of marriage rights. It makes for depressing reading in many ways - 27 states have constitutional amendments limiting or banning same-sex marriage and 41 have laws against it - but the threads of hope are still there, such as in the fact that while only California and Massachusetts now allow same-sex marriage, four others allow civil unions, providing many of the same protections as marriage, and four more allow folks to register as "domestic partners," granting at least some rights and privileges, such as hospital visits.

It wasn't that long ago that none of that existed. There will come a time and I believe not that far off when these bans on same-sex marriage will appear as odd and feel as embarrassing as the bans on interracial marriage do now.

Here's one good solid reason to think so: The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday that on matters related to same-sex marriage,

the generational schism is pronounced. Those under 45 were less likely to favor a constitutional amendment than their elders and were more supportive of the court's decision to overturn the state's current ban on gay marriage. They also disagreed more strongly than their elders with the notion that gay relationships threatened traditional marriage.

Later in the story, it quotes a woman who thinks it's "just not right" that "a man and a man should be married."

Even within her own family, however, there are differences of opinion. A younger daughter, she said, feels "there's nothing wrong with that."

"To kids nowadays, it's like 'Oh well.' Maybe it is 'Oh well.' They see it. We didn't see it. It was one of those in-the-closet things."

And while the proposed amendment has the support of a small majority in an early poll, that support is nowhere near the level backers of a ballot issue like to start out with, since such questions tend to lose support as the campaign goes on. So keep a good thought.