USC freshman Jarod Wunneburger views 2006 as a breakthrough year for the gay community, with the popularity of Oscar-nominated films such as "Brokeback Mountain" and "Transamerica" and the public debate over states banning same-sex marriage.
So to Wunneburger, a UCLA report released today about the attitudes of college freshmen nationwide came as no surprise. Acceptance of same-sex marriage grew from 2005 to 2006.
The study found that 61% of incoming freshmen last year agreed that same-sex couples should have the right to marriage, up 3.3 percentage points from 2005.
Based on a paper questionnaire given to 271,441 first-time, full-time college students at 393 schools nationwide in 2006, the annual survey was conducted as part of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program under UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute. The researchers statistically adjusted the data to reflect the demographics of the 1.3 million incoming freshmen entering four-year schools throughout the U.S. in 2006.
The findings on gay issues reflected the experiences of Wunneburger, 18, a sociology major who works at USC's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center.
"Most students here don't have a problem with people being open about their sexuality," said Wunneburger, who recalled the acceptance he felt after coming out to a Christian campus group he recently joined. "I think most people my age know being gay is something out there and are more open to accepting it."
The UCLA study surveyed opinions on a variety of social and political issues.
Researchers say today's freshmen are more vocal about their political ideologies than in previous years, with 33.8% saying they've recently discussed politics, up from 25.5% in 2004, when the question was last asked.
"Freshmen also appear to be moving away from a moderate position in their political views," said John H. Pryor, director of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program.
The percentage of students identifying themselves as "liberal," 28.4%, is at its highest level since 1975, and those identifying as "conservative," 23.9%, at its highest level in the survey's 40-year history.
However, the majority of 2006's freshman students, 43.3%, consider themselves "middle-of-the-road," the lowest percentage since first measured by the research program in 1970.
Hot-button issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage, sharply divide liberals and conservatives, the survey found.
