Some current poll numbers on gay marriage:

NYT: Strong Support Is Found for Ban on Gay Marriage: "Attitudes on the subject seem to be inextricably linked to how people view marriage itself. For a majority of Americans — 53 percent — marriage is largely a religious matter. Seventy-one percent of those people oppose gay marriage. Similarly, 33 percent of Americans say marriage is largely a legal matter and a majority of those people — 55 percent — say they support gay marriage. "The most positive feelings toward gay people were registered among respondents under 30, and among those who knew gay people. "The nationwide poll found that 55 percent of Americans favored an amendment to the constitution that would allow marriage only between a man and a woman, while 40 percent opposed the idea."

So let me get this straight: those who don't think marriage is a legal matter are the biggest supporters of having the law deny gay marriage... Apparently they also believe that religion is not a private, personal matter but a public one, worthy of a Constitutional amendment. [Sigh] The arguments have all been hashed to death; the anti-gay position is obviously vaporous, but no one cares. On the other side:

CNN.com: Poll: Young not in step with 30-plus crowd: "While a majority of younger Americans -- 53 percent -- support same-sex marriages that are recognized with equal rights under the law, 32 percent of the older group backed such a concept."

So the youth generally support gay marriage. I wonder whether a particular tolerance gained in youth -- in this case towards homosexuals and their right to marry -- is easily lost later in life. I tend to think it isn't. Age can reinforce a prejudice but I don't think it so often reverses the specific sympathies of youth. A Constutional amendment, were it to pass (which it wouldn't), would in effect be a slap in the face of the youth. It would be a doomed amendment, one which the next generation would surely want to repeal in thirty years or so. It would be just a stupid clod of mud on the Constitution, and a vast waste of government effort. Another thing that troubles me with suchy petty Constitutional meddling: if one day 80% of Americans happened to be evangelical Christian, or Jewish, or Atheist, or Libertine, or Gay, the Constitution, as it is today, would still make sense. If, perhaps due to some mysterious virus, almost everyone turned homosexual, we would have to have gay families raising families. The Constitution wouldn't make sense. It would be broken. Of course nobody these days is compelled by reductio ad absurdum, because nobody gives a shit about things making logical sense. One last thing: it is interesting to me that Christians today are aligning themselves with Muslims and other groups to oppose gay marriage and adoption by gay couples. They say, "We approve of this immigrant family of Islamic fundamentalists; let them have all the children they want. But you gay Americans had better not come near any children!" Which of those two groups is likely to cause more trouble in the long-run? Fundamentalists or homosexuals...?