As you may know, the agents of intolerance managed to pass a ban on gay marriage in California and two other states. I have not written about the California one, Proposition 8, before.
I think that the gay marriage bans are the fading gasp of a dying trend of intolerance and bigotry. The polling I have seen before seems to be pretty consistent in reporting that intolerance towards gays is lessening over time. The opponents of gay marriage are fighting a losing war and, while they are indeed capable of scoring victories from time to time, the trend is not in their favor.
It is also worth noting that many of the same religious groups that are active in fighting against gay marriage have had to, in the recent past, atone for their past support of racial bigotry. As one example, the Mormon church poured tens of millions of dollars into Prop 8; it was not until a few decades ago that the Mormons even permitted non-whites to join their church.
They may win a few more victories. In time, however, it will all be undone. In time, the leadership of those churches will look back over their record of intolerance and bigotry and, once more, they will beg for forgiveness.
They will lose it all. And you can take that to the bank.
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2 comments:
I think as the younger, more tolerant members of our society become more politically active and take over leadership roles in all kinds of places, we'll see a shift.
In the meantime, I want to strike a deal with the Mormons - they can have as many wives as they want if they'll just leave homosexuals alone to their civil rights.
(Okay, blogger is having fun today - my word verification is sperms)
The biggest problem with Proposition 8 here in California was a really poor performance by the No on 8 campaign when it came to outreach to minority communities. Prop h8 passed because it received 70% of the black vote and 55% of the Hispanic vote. There was no (zero) attempt by No on 8 to connect with the black and Hispanic communities. There were no signs in Spanish. There was no advertising on Spanish-language television. There was no advertising on black-oriented radio. There were no door knockers pounding the pavement in black communities, no outreach to black pastors, no attempt to couch Prop 8 in terms of civil rights (indeed, the No on 8 campaign advised its volunteers to *not* couch Prop 8 as a civil rights issue). All that these major communities received was a steady diet of lies from the Yes on 8 campaign which told them that unless they passed Prop 8, schools were going to be teaching their kids to be gay.
California is a majority minority state now. White middle class college-educated people are a minority here. Yet that is all that the No on 8 campaign went after with its inept campaign. The gay community needs to wake up and realize that just because the gay community's main organizations are dominated by white middle class college-educated people doesn't mean that those are the only people who exist. Without substantial, continued, and persistent outreach to the "minorities" who are now the majority, civil rights for gays will always be subject to being voted down by the majority.
- Badtux the Numbers Penguin
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