Gay marriage is tomorrow's 'whatever'

If there's one thing certain about life in this world, it's that so often, today's intractable issues become tomorrow's "whatever."

It's pretty apparent that gay marriage is one of those issues.

At Saturday's gay rights rally in Washington, D.C., the crowd heard from Judy Shepard, whose son Matthew was killed in a famous attack in Wyoming 10 years ago.

"We are all equal Americans," she said. "Gay, straight or whatever."

Like it or not, gay marriage is coming. In 1996, when the issue first started showing up on the mainstream radar, a Gallup poll showed only 27 percent of Americans in favor of gay marriage; a recent survery showed that 45 percent now support it.

That's a pretty strong increase in just 13 years, as opposed to support for interracial marriage, which became an issue in the late '40s when miscegenation laws began falling in the courts. Support for interracial marriage didn't reach 50 percent until 1991.

One reason things change is that each generation tends to be more tolerant than the one that preceded it. If you ask people under 30, they just don't see gay marriage as a question to be settled. Their attitude about it tends to be "whatever," which depending on its usage can be either incredibly rude or incredibly tolerant.

Incredibly rude? Here's an example:

"Hey, Mark."

"It's 'Mike'."

"Whatever."

On the other hand, if someone comes up to you and tells you that his buddies Mark and Mike want to get married, responding with "whatever" tells you that whatever they want to do is OK with him.

Time changes everything. A generation that worried about black people moving into its neighborhoods eventually came to see that there were black folks who had the same goals and dreams, the same values and desires that they did.

They had a lot more in common with each other than either one of them did with Billy Bob from the trailer park or Leon from the 'hood.

Time heals all wounds and wounds all heels, and today's outrages become tomorrow's "whatever."

Of course, there will always be new outrages.