Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America's Future

by Jean M. Twenge

Just ask Michael McConnell and Jack Baker (both b. 1942). The two applied for a marriage license in 1970 in Minneapolis; at the time, Minnesota’s marriage laws did not explicitly mention the gender of the participants. The clerk denied their petition and they took the case to court. They were able to get a marriage license in another county after Jack changed his name to the gender-neutral Pat Lyn. Wearing white bell-bottom pantsuits and macramé headbands, the two were married in 1971, though the county clerk later refused to file the marriage record. Newspaper coverage of their case at the time referred to Baker as McConnell’s “roommate” or “homosexual friend,” and the University of Minnesota rescinded McConnell’s job offer. When he sued, the court criticized him for attempting to “foist tacit approval of this socially repugnant concept upon his employer.” Their original marriage case, Baker v. Nelson, was curtly dismissed by the Supreme Court in 1972 “for want of a substantial federal question.” Their marriage, finally legally recognized in 2019, is thought to be the longest same-sex marriage in the U.S.