Why is gay marriage gaining acceptance in the world...?

[Bigmack]

I just read that New Zealand is close to accepting gay marriage, and France will, too. It seems the whole world is suddenly coming to its collective senses.

Gays comprise - depending on who is counting - somewhere around 5% of the population. How did they get the political clout to get anything out of a generally homophobic world?

Please don't tell me the world is becoming a more loving, accepting place....

I've read that gays are smarter and richer than straights... dunno whether it's true... but even if it is, how does that translate into a small minority getting their agenda passed? The Left is pretty damn smart. Maybe not rich, but lots of us are rich enough to support causes and candidates. How come we get nothing.. and barely hang on to what we've got?

I'm overjoyed that my gay brothers and sisters are getting the rights they deserve, but I'm wondering how it happened.... and I'm also wondering how the Left can use whatever strategy gays used to get what we need.

[justiceischeap]

1. Because we've been fighting for acceptance since 342 AD

when Christian emperors Constantius II and Constans issued a law in the Theodosian Code (C. Th. 9.7.3) prohibiting same-sex marriage in Rome and ordering execution for those so married.

[graham4anything]

2. Why did Ronald Reagan sleep while One Million or so die from AIDS before he woke up?

Why did Lincoln free the slaves?

Why did it take 100 years from Lincoln til LBJ signed the voting rights acts?

Why did Hitler kill 6 million Jews solely because they were Jews (and tens of millions others for who they were, NOT TO FORGET Hitler killed the Gays too.

Why did FDR had to hide he was handicapped from the public?

WHY?
Because Thomas Jefferson said (what everyone thought he said was ALL ARE CREATED EQUAL)
yet what Jefferson meant was only men like Jefferson were equal. Everyone else had no rights.

Why?
Because this is 2013 and its way time that every minority has equal rights.

It is why social issues are far more important than other issues.

Freedom from racism, sexism, homophobia, religion differences(or no religion at all) are just
basic equality rights. We are all WE.

[TrogL]

3. We've only been working on it for a couple of centuries

[cali]

6. actually no.

No one anywhere in the world was working on marriage equality or gay rights 200 years ago. It was difficult enough for gays (in particular) to just stay out of prison- think Oscar Wilde.

[TrogL]

10. I was thinking of Karl-Maria Kertbeny

Thought he was earlier than 1874.

[randome]

13. My daughters are 'fans' of Oscar Wilde and knowledgable about his tribulations.

[cali]

15. I'm a huge Oscar Wilde fan

Many years ago, I was in London with my mother and I insisted on going to the Cadogan Hotel where Wilde was arrested in 1895, for lunch. It was one of the most ghastly meals I've ever had. We sat down on pink velvet banquettes that were once red and a great cloud of fine dust was released. We hastily ordered a bottle of champagne and were fortunately soused by the time our meal arrived. Slimy greyish pink salmon to match the banquettes and tinned peas of a frightening hue. By that time we were laughing so hard we were practically choking.

It was fun.

(in all fairness, this was in the 70s before the hotel had a much needed face lift)

[cali]

4. hard, diligent work.

and it didn't happen over night.

[PDJane]

5. New Zealand already has same-sex partnerships; the marriage thing is an equality issue.

They likely will get it passed. Marriage equality will be legal by summer in France. Uruguay has legalized marriage equality, by an overwhelming margin. Almost 25% of people in the world live in a place where marriage equality is a done deal. IIRC, Spain was first; the largely Roman Catholic country insisted upon a civil ceremony before a church wedding could be considered recognized. You see, the state confers the benefits of marriage.

It's a civil rights issue. It is long past time that we recognized marriage equality, in the same way that we've granted civil rights to other groups.

Oh, and it's an interesting factoid that 9 of the 16 countries that have marriage equality are majority or plurality Catholic...in spite of the Catholic church's continued opposition.

(The countries are Brazil*, France, South Africa, The United States*, Spain, Argentina, Canada, The Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Mexico*, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Uruguay, Iceland.) The asterisks mark countries where some states or jurisdictions have marriage equality.

[pipi_k]

7. Maybe because...

they realized this basic concept....

[randome]

8. The world is becoming a more loving, accepting place.

Sorry, I think that's more the truth. Despite all the violence and killing and maiming, the world is becoming more homogenized and is less dangerous than it was 200 years ago.

Maybe it's something in our genes, even. A genetic/cultural 'switch' has been thrown. Whatever the case, it's a welcome change.

[hunter]

9. Brave people, often celebraties, stepping out of the closet. That's what did it.

That's not really applicable to many "Left" issues.

I can be an openly radical leftist and environmentalist and I'm not putting myself in the same degree of danger as a gay person coming out.

We now have a world where people know family members or friends who are gay, and even if they don't, they "know" people like Ellen DeGeneres or George Takei.

It was a similar process with the Civil Rights movement. Rosa Parks didn't go to the back of the bus. The Greensboro Four sat down at a lunch counter.

[Marrah_G]

11. Education

The more people know the less they are of boogymen put out by religious leaders.

[LuvNewcastle]

12. As those above have already said, it's been a VERY long struggle.

But I think that you probably want to know what has changed recently for GLBT people to make the important strides we've made. Mostly it's about more of us coming out.

When I was a kid 40 years ago, most people would have told you that they didn't know any gay people, or they weren't sure if they did. The AIDS epidemic changed all that. AIDS outed a lot of people. People who had been in the closet started getting sick and soon everyone knew about their sexuality. Others started coming out, too, and more people became aware of gay people in their society. As they began to get to know us and their initial fear of us began to subside, they began to sympathize with us and many of the injustices we faced.

So the strides that have been made in GLBT rights are due to education about us individually and as a group. People see that we're essentially the same as they are and have come to believe that we are therefore due the same rights.

I left out a lot of stuff that I'm sure others will comment about, but this is the basic story of gay rights in my lifetime. I hope that's what you were looking for.

[Aerows]

14. We've had acceptance

in every culture that didn't get overwhelmed by patriarchal religions.

I'd expound upon this, but I'd just get pegged as a man hating feminist lesbian, and frankly, I've had enough of that.

Suffice to say, it is evident in nature, it is evident in humanity, and it is only a society that views aggression as "nature" rather than living together as equals that makes homosexuality a horrible thing.

And I'm not forgetting those who were homosexual that were the fiercest warriors available, because they protected their brothers and sisters.

It's religion that desires children to be raised in the faith to perpetuate the cycle that does this. Religion does good things like pulling together cultures, but it does very bad things like denouncing anyone that doesn't adhere to a certain ideology.

[PDJane]

17. How do you explain the number of Roman Catholic countries that have accepted marriage equality?

[Aerows]

19. I love that Artengina has done so

I love that Spain, and Portugal and Brazil have. The explanation that I have is that they don't have the same people with a stranglehold on their nations. They've already had female leaders. The US has not.

[Occulus]

20. By the fact people are starting to understand how evil the Roman Catholic Church truly is.

[BlueToTheBone]

16. Did you ever hear the story of the 100th monkey?

So this is what I heard...
in the later 40s after WWII, Japanese scientists were studying monkey populations on 2 islands that had been involved somehow in the war. The monkeys on both islands had the same diet of sweet potatoes tht they had learned dig out of the ground. One day one Island A, a young female monkey dropped her potato in the stream and ate the clean potato. The next day, she came to the stream and placed the potato in the water to wash it. Time passed and more and more of monkeys on Island A washed their potatoes. Then finally the oldest male monkey washed his potato and then majority of monkeys cleaned their food before they ate. On that day, ALL the monkeys on Island B began washing their potatoes too. So, there is some sort of "field" that reaches critical mass and things change. I have hoped that we will reach the 100th monkey in our civilization...so this may be an example of that. There is a book by that name as well.

Or, it may just be a myth.

[msanthrope]

18. A bit more on the 100th monkey...

http://skepdic.com/monkey.html

[BlueToTheBone]

21. Thanks for that

Like I said, could be a myth...but what a nice one...to think we can help each grow.