Twenty years ago gay marriage was a radioactive issue. I know because I was an intern in a Democratic Senator's office back then, and when the Defense of Marriage Act came up I got to watch my boss and a bunch of other normally progressive people rush to vote for it to avoid any possibility of being painted as pro-gay. It was a deeply depressing spectacle.
Now gay marriage is not only thinkable, it's on the verge of becoming the new normal.
Why? How did that happen?
It happened because gay people organized. They spent two decades doing the hard work required to change peoples' minds. And now that work is paying off.
A democracy is not an immovable object. Moving it is hard, but it can be done. You just have to be willing to put your back into it.
I feel there is a huge difference between political organization around issues of civil rights, and organizing against the military-intelligence-industrial complex.
I've studied the history of civil rights considerably. This issue strikes me as a far different beast.
Twenty years ago gay marriage was a radioactive issue. I know because I was an intern in a Democratic Senator's office back then, and when the Defense of Marriage Act came up I got to watch my boss and a bunch of other normally progressive people rush to vote for it to avoid any possibility of being painted as pro-gay. It was a deeply depressing spectacle.
Now gay marriage is not only thinkable, it's on the verge of becoming the new normal.
Why? How did that happen?
It happened because gay people organized. They spent two decades doing the hard work required to change peoples' minds. And now that work is paying off.
A democracy is not an immovable object. Moving it is hard, but it can be done. You just have to be willing to put your back into it.