The Millennials. The DotNets. That's what they're calling those born between 1985 and 2004. This is also the generation that will most likely bring the biggest change to the GLBT rights movement. Let me just tell you that this makes me feel old when even I don't fit into this generation. I missed this by a couple of years. What's next? The dentist's office will start playing music from the 90's--not the 80's? Oh wait - they've already started that too. Back to the story.

Detroit News has a great column about this today:

As the gray heads in the U.S. Senate get ready to weigh in again this June on gay marriage, look elsewhere if you want to see the real deciders, as President Bush might call them.

Look to the 21-year-old getting ready to enter law school, the 7-year-old zipping by on a Razor scooter and the 2-year-old doing her first spin around the playground in a convertible Cozy Coupe. Their generation will, I predict, have the final say over full marriage equality for those of us who're gay -- and they'll give it an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

Variously dubbed the DotNets or Millennials, Americans born between 1985 and 2004 are already demonstrating refreshing levels of civic engagement, respect for the power of voting and eagerness to solve problems through team work.

Generations scholar William Strauss, co-author of "Millennials Rising," predicts young people growing up just behind the cynical, disengaged Generation Xers will be "the next great generation."

Fortunately, the Millennials also are a big generation. Their impact is going to hit like a political tsunami in the next decade: Even before the final four years of Millennials were born, the 2000 Census put them at 72.4 million strong, nearly matching the 77.6 million Baby Boomers (born between 1945 and 1964).

Social researchers have found that each new generation is more gay-friendly than the one before -- and the oldest Millennials certainly fit that encouraging pattern.

Even two years ago, 15- to 25-year-olds favored gay marriage by 56 percent to 39 percent, according to a national survey by the University of Maryland's youth think tank, the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE at civicyouth.org).

"Each generation has come of age being considerably more tolerant and become even more so," says CIRCLE director Peter Levine, who tracked the attitudes of generational groups over time.

"This youngest generation is very tolerant, a very large group, and they have turned around the voting decline in the first election in which they could vote. If you put all that together, it spells a huge change in gay rights -- and one not very far off," he adds.

So are we surprised that each new generation is more gay-friendly than the one before? Of course not, but this is great research to back it up.

-Bryan Boyd, BRO Communications Coordinator

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 at 9:22 AM. Want to discuss? Leave a comment below.