New Books in Sociology Peter Hart-Brinson, "The Gay Marriage Generation: How the LGBTQ Movement Transformed American Culture" (NYU Press, 2018)
Aug 15, 2025
Peter Hart-Brinson, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, dives into how the LGBTQ movement has reshaped American attitudes toward gay marriage. He explores generational differences in perceptions through engaging data and personal interviews. Highlights include the cultural clash from the early '90s shift in sexuality views, nuanced attitudes post-1992, and the evolution of marriage meaning across generations. Hart-Brinson's insights push for a reevaluation of what defines generational identities today.
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Origin Moment In Wisconsin Classroom
- Peter Hart-Brinson began this research after noticing college conservatives opposing a 2006 Wisconsin same-sex marriage ban and a conservative campus paper breaking with party lines on the issue.
- Those observations sparked his question whether gay marriage represented a generational shift and prompted mixed-methods research combining surveys and interviews.
Generation Means New Shared Schemas
- Generational change is more than cohort replacement; it requires new shared experiences that produce different schemas for thinking and acting.
- Cohort replacement alone doesn't guarantee generational change unless younger cohorts develop distinct worldviews from older ones.
Three Lenses To Explain Generational Change
- Thorough analysis of generational change needs demographic, historical, and interpretive perspectives combined.
- Demographers, historians, and interpretive sociologists each supply essential parts to explain how attitudes shift across generations.
