There is a generation gap in the gay rights movement and it is getting wider every day. This is because of the gay rights movement's increasingly single-minded focus on marriage equality.
On the anniversary of the first legal same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts, all people, gay and straight, should celebrate the freedom of equality under the law.
But for gay youth, the celebration is bittersweet.
The elevation of marriage equality as the most important issue in the contemporary gay rights movement has obscured the fact that marriage is, for the most part, not even an issue for gay youth.
Historically, the gay rights establishment has never asked gay youth for their opinion on any issue and the question of "gay marriage" is no different.
The bottom line: the gay rights movement has never adequately addressed the needs of gay youth.
My gay peers and I support equal rights for all.
However, the issue of marriage equality has monopolized the gay and straight mainstream media's coverage of gay issues and effectively sidelined other issues in gay culture.
As a gay male sophomore at Dartmouth College, I see many gay cultural and political issues that need to be addressed -- issues vital to the entire movement, not just gay youth.
What are these issues? Rather than planning to get married, gay youth, like most youth, are focusing on careers and jobs after college.
Many gay youth would find it beneficial to discuss how being out and gay in work environments affects their sexual identity. Gay youth need to learn better ways to come out, how to deal with parents, how to deal with sexual anxiety.
We need to hear about how to negotiate safe sex and how older people deal with sexual issues and problems.
Gay youths must learn how to successfully combat the ignorance they face every day.
Gay rights organizations that support marriage equality have an obligation to provide gay youths with the facts and figures used to dispel myths about gay culture.
For example, gay youths need to know that gay men are not susceptible to HIV simply because they are gay.
Most gay youth are willing to fight discrimination but many don't have the hard facts or know how to use statistics and history in educating people.
The major gay rights organizations should descend on college and high school campuses and offer classes in activism, how to research the current statistics on HIV transmission for example, and how to most eloquently speak up about being gay in a less than queer world.
But the reality is that gay youths are not being asked for their opinion and we are becoming increasingly alienated from a movement that is focused on the concerns of some older gay men and lesbians.
Current gay activists pay heed.
In 10 years, gay youth will be the next generation of gay activists. The gay rights movement must reorient itself as representative of all gay people, not just the few who have power now.
A constant dialogue must be maintained between older gay activists and younger gay people so that we learn from each other. Marriage equality has given basic rights and recognition to gay people.
With the first year of same-sex marriages now a part of history, a new generation of gay voices must be heard. I'll begin.
