Tim Carpenter wrote a column in the Topeka Capital-Journal today that brought up something that I have long said: The more anti-gay activists fight our movement, the more we progress.
The number one enemy for LGBT equality has always been the closet, which renders our families invisible. The legislative conflict created by anti-gay organizations hurts us in the short term — with sharp spikes in intolerance and even violence. But it also forces many people to come out and confront friends and family members. This inevitably leads to greater understanding — with the final stop being equal rights under the law.
My hunch is now confirmed by research. According to Carpenter’s column:
Now comes a University of Kansas political scientist — working in the hotbed of opposition seven years ago to the amendment — who believes national advocacy since the 1990s for state laws and constitutional amendments against same-sex unions to have fostered public empathy for gay and lesbian partners and their families.
“If it hadn’t been for states pushing to ban same-sex marriages, people might not have been exposed to personal, often very tragic, stories of difficulties that gay couples experience without benefit of marriage,” said Don Haider-Markel. “It’s an ironic outcome.”
Haider-Markel, with a research emphasis on U.S. gay and lesbian political movements, said evidence could be found by exploring movement since 2003 in states to legalize same-sex marriage or civil unions.
“We have seen broader changing attitudes in the past 30 years as well as an increasing number of people saying they know somebody who is gay or lesbian,” Haider-Markel said.
Thank you Brian Brown and Maggie Gallagher. While your nasty crusades to strip a minority of their rights may pay your bills today — these efforts will backfire and ensure equality in the future.
Well as the Bible says, “The truth shall set you free.” The thing is that these people have perforce to base their entire movement on a pack of lies. Lies about who LGBT persons are, lies about sexual orientation and its immutability, lies about “the possibility of change,” and most abominably lies about the negative impact they claim the LGBT community has on the society at large.
I think people in growing numbers are becoming more and more aware that as these people get more shrill, the lies get more obvious, and many people who may never even have given LGBT equality much thought before are certainly thinking about it now, and favorably.
I’ve been saying the same thing for years. The enemy is the closet, not the wingnuts. Silence was our oppressor. The antigay campaigns force people to talk about something that used to be “the love that dare not speak its name” And the “crime against nature, not to be named among Christians”‘
If you haven’t come out yet, as long as its physically safe, do so.
When professional gay-bashers are advising their own children on choosing a career, I wonder if they are in touch enough with reality to tell them: “While gay-bashing has been a great cash-cow that’s putting you through college, it’s a dying industry. I’m sure I can milk it a few more years until you get your master’s degree, but that’s about it. If you’re as motivated as I was to turn my sincerely held bigoted beliefs into a lucrative career, you’ll need to search for a different group to target. And here’s a word of advice: Find a group whose members don’t come from every ethnicity, every religion, every nation, every socioeconomic strata, every political stripe, and virtually every family. Perhaps Gypsies may be a hot prospect. But pray to God and ask Him to guide your heart.”
I have long made this exact same point. The beauty of free speech is that it exposes people for who they really are, for better or worse. The more you let people spout insane hate at LGBTs, the more others sympathize less with the insane haters and more with the LGBTs.
If the anti-gay industry didn’t exist, I am absolutely convinced there would be little difference between the LGBT America of today and the LGBT America of twenty years ago. There would have been so much less to fight against, and so much reason to just keep quiet and keep the status quo.
The one and only reason why America in general knows now so much more about who we really are is because of our need to fight the lies. If nobody had been telling lies, there would have been no fight. They created a generation of activists and guaranteed our victories.
As I have joked often on many websites where antigay stuff shows up: “Oh, if only you hadn’t raided the Stonewall bar just one more time, we might well have remained hidden forever, where you wanted us. But, oh well, you kept showing up and bugging us. So we said the hell with that. You bar raiders, you’re the parents of the gay rights movement. Thanks so much.” It seems to infuriate them all the more; or they evolve.
That which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. Examples:
1. Stonewall. A police raid on a gay bar – sparked the modern LGBT right movement. It would seem insignificant, but it wasn’t. As stated above, what if it had never happened? It taught us to fight back and be out of the closet
2. The Anita Bryant crusade. It politicized our community like nothing else could have at the time. It also gave us the cojones to fight back against bigotry. Look where we are and look where Bryant is. Imagine if she had just let the Dade County ordinance alone? No Harvey Milk, no Briggs initiative. Bet those who initiated this are sorry now.
3. AIDS Epidemic. It taught our community to demand the social services that everyone else takes for granted. It also galvanized us and led to our demanding our rights. It taught us not to be meek.
4. The anti-gay referenda. Those initiatives are on the ropes in the courts. In 10 years, they will be an embarrassing piece of history for those who pushed for them. They won’t be something that anyone but the kooks boast to their grandchildren about. This chapter in our history is not over yet, but when all is said and done, it will have taught us, and everyone else, what the purpose Constitution is.
Courage is what makes us stronger. These pieces of adversity are what gives us the chance to show our courage. As Wayne points out, coming out and being visible is what makes us stronger. And that takes courage and a hell of a lot of integrity.