Glia
07-17-2014, 01:19 PM
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Guess what other social movement is following in the footsteps of marriage equality?
by Mark Engler and Paul Engler
(https://wagingnonviolence.org/author/markandpaul/)
*******
Not long ago, same-sex marriage in America was not merely an unpopular cause; it was a politically fatal one — a third-rail issue that could end the career of any politician foolish enough to touch it. The idea that gay and lesbian couples would be able to legally exchange vows in states throughout the United States was regarded, at best, as a far-off fantasy and, at worst, as a danger to the republic.
It can be difficult to remember how hostile the terrain was for LGBT advocates in even recent decades. As of 1990, three-quarters of Americans saw (https://harvardmagazine.com/2013/03/how-same-sex-marriage-came-to-be) homosexual sex as immoral. Less than a third condoned same-sex marriage — something no country in the world permitted. In 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman and denied federal benefits to same-sex couples, passed by an overwhelming 85-14 margin in the U.S. Senate. Figures including Democratic Sen. Joe Biden voted for it, and Democratic President Bill Clinton signed the act, affirming (https://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/scotts/ftp/wpaf2mc/clinton.html), “I have long opposed governmental recognition of same-gender marriages.”
When the Vermont Supreme Court ruled to allow civil unions in that state in 1999, Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer called (https://harvardmagazine.com/2013/03/how-same-sex-marriage-came-to-be) the decision “in some ways worse than terrorism.” The decision, which was reversed by the state’s voters, sparked nationwide backlash. As recently as 2004, conservative strategist Karl Rove, seeing a potent wedge issue, pushed to have “marriage protection” amendments placed on the ballot in 13 states. All of these passed, in what one newspaper called (https://harvardmagazine.com/2013/03/how-same-sex-marriage-came-to-be) a “resounding, coast-to-coast rejection of gay marriage.” Ambitious conservatives with their eyes on higher office — such as future Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — campaigned aggressively for the bans. The goal of marriage equality seemed doomed.
Today, these seem like scenes from an alternate universe.
Currently, 19 states and the District of Columbia allow (https://americansformarriageequality.org/resources) same-sex marriages, a number that is increasing at a brisk rate. An ever-growing majority of the public expresses its support in national polls, and statistician Nate Silver projects (https://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/how-opinion-on-same-sex-marriage-is-changing-and-what-it-means/) that majorities favoring marriage equality will coalesce in even deeply conservative Southern states by 2024. Surveying this landscape, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch has conceded (https://www.cnn.com/2014/06/25/opinion/kaplan-doma-edie-windsor/), “Anybody who does not believe that gay marriage is going to be the law of the land… isn’t living in the real world.”
What is striking about this is not just the seeming suddenness of the reversal. It is that the rapidly expanding victory around same-sex marriage defies many of our common ideas about how social change happens.
This was not a win that came in measured doses, but rather a situation in which the floodgates of progress were opened after years of half-steps and seemingly devastating reversals. It was not something enacted thanks to a senate majority leader twisting arms or a charismatic president pounding his bully pulpit. Instead, it came about through the efforts of a broad-based movement, pushing for increased acceptance of LGBT rights within a wide range of constituencies. The cumulative result was to change the terms of national debate, turning the impossible into the inevitable. ...
continues at
https://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/pillars-fall-social-movements-can-win-victories-like-sex-marriage/
(https://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/pillars-fall-social-movements-can-win-victories-like-sex-marriage/)
Guess what other social movement is following in the footsteps of marriage equality?
by Mark Engler and Paul Engler
(https://wagingnonviolence.org/author/markandpaul/)
*******
Not long ago, same-sex marriage in America was not merely an unpopular cause; it was a politically fatal one — a third-rail issue that could end the career of any politician foolish enough to touch it. The idea that gay and lesbian couples would be able to legally exchange vows in states throughout the United States was regarded, at best, as a far-off fantasy and, at worst, as a danger to the republic.
It can be difficult to remember how hostile the terrain was for LGBT advocates in even recent decades. As of 1990, three-quarters of Americans saw (https://harvardmagazine.com/2013/03/how-same-sex-marriage-came-to-be) homosexual sex as immoral. Less than a third condoned same-sex marriage — something no country in the world permitted. In 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman and denied federal benefits to same-sex couples, passed by an overwhelming 85-14 margin in the U.S. Senate. Figures including Democratic Sen. Joe Biden voted for it, and Democratic President Bill Clinton signed the act, affirming (https://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/scotts/ftp/wpaf2mc/clinton.html), “I have long opposed governmental recognition of same-gender marriages.”
When the Vermont Supreme Court ruled to allow civil unions in that state in 1999, Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer called (https://harvardmagazine.com/2013/03/how-same-sex-marriage-came-to-be) the decision “in some ways worse than terrorism.” The decision, which was reversed by the state’s voters, sparked nationwide backlash. As recently as 2004, conservative strategist Karl Rove, seeing a potent wedge issue, pushed to have “marriage protection” amendments placed on the ballot in 13 states. All of these passed, in what one newspaper called (https://harvardmagazine.com/2013/03/how-same-sex-marriage-came-to-be) a “resounding, coast-to-coast rejection of gay marriage.” Ambitious conservatives with their eyes on higher office — such as future Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — campaigned aggressively for the bans. The goal of marriage equality seemed doomed.
Today, these seem like scenes from an alternate universe.
Currently, 19 states and the District of Columbia allow (https://americansformarriageequality.org/resources) same-sex marriages, a number that is increasing at a brisk rate. An ever-growing majority of the public expresses its support in national polls, and statistician Nate Silver projects (https://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/how-opinion-on-same-sex-marriage-is-changing-and-what-it-means/) that majorities favoring marriage equality will coalesce in even deeply conservative Southern states by 2024. Surveying this landscape, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch has conceded (https://www.cnn.com/2014/06/25/opinion/kaplan-doma-edie-windsor/), “Anybody who does not believe that gay marriage is going to be the law of the land… isn’t living in the real world.”
What is striking about this is not just the seeming suddenness of the reversal. It is that the rapidly expanding victory around same-sex marriage defies many of our common ideas about how social change happens.
This was not a win that came in measured doses, but rather a situation in which the floodgates of progress were opened after years of half-steps and seemingly devastating reversals. It was not something enacted thanks to a senate majority leader twisting arms or a charismatic president pounding his bully pulpit. Instead, it came about through the efforts of a broad-based movement, pushing for increased acceptance of LGBT rights within a wide range of constituencies. The cumulative result was to change the terms of national debate, turning the impossible into the inevitable. ...
continues at
https://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/pillars-fall-social-movements-can-win-victories-like-sex-marriage/
(https://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/pillars-fall-social-movements-can-win-victories-like-sex-marriage/)