There was the same major political party doing the same thing in the '90s and the '00s. In fact, some of those rights weren't even rights yet (e.g. gay marriage). The only difference today is the dramatic reaction to it justifying black-and-white thinking.

Even with more polarized political parties today, the world is a lot more complicated than "Republicans Evil." If the teens of today can't grasp that, it's at least a failure of society to develop their emotional resilience (or cynically - it's the fault of an economy that is breeding & preying on their lack of resilience and nuance).