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I have a memory of a gaggle of high school kids on a Great Salt Lake beach a few years ago, and a slim, graceful boy doing an impeccable imitation of Diana Ross.

His friends were laughing and cheering him on in that easy camaraderie that defines kids at that age: relishing their friend's antics and fully accepting him as a gay boy, soon to be a man.

Moments like these tell the story of how many of today's young people have not a shred of antipathy toward the LGBT kids among them. But it doesn't hurt to see a new poll that finds that nationally, 57 percent of people between 18 and 29 years old favor same-sex marriage.

Predictably, the older the respondents, the less they approve — only 42 percent of those age 30 to 49 do and after age 65 it's down to 26 percent, according to a May survey by the Public Religion Research Institute. Overall, 51 percent of the respondents would allow gay marriages. In a related survey, 56 percent of those polled favor allowing gay couples to adopt children.

But it doesn't take a poll to know that around the country and here in Utah, aversion is on the wane and acceptance is rising. You could see that in last Sunday's Pride Parade and Festival, when the streets were lined with crowds of men, women and kids clapping and whooping as the show went by.

There were plenty of gray-haired traditional couples there, and moms and dads with kids in strollers interwoven with the gay couples, singles and groups among the tens of thousands who showed up at Washington Square.

Still, it's just one festival. During the rest of the year, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people live and work with everybody else in Utah. Even in our overwhelmingly conservative Legislature, gays and lesbians have served with distinction for years.

Another rather wonderful aspect of Utah is that we have relatively few "gayborhoods," which means our neighbors can be just about anybody and are welcome to our block parties and barbecues.

So while it's young people who are ever more ready to embrace people of all types, the older among us are doing the same.

As in all things, it's a matter of being comfortable with the ever-growing diversity of this state and nation. Once there were laws against interracial marriage. Now there's the federal Defense of Marriage Act — one man, one woman — that the Obama administration has abandoned as unconstitutional. Not surprisingly, U.S. House Republicans, led by Speaker John Boehner, have hired an attorney to defend it.

We have a long way to go, but we're getting there. The kids are all right on this one.

Peg McEntee is a news columnist. Reach her atpegmcentee@sltrib.com.