Reply #10: The LGBT movement suffers from EXACTLY what the African American movement went through in the 70s [View All]

[HamdenRice]

That is, with the over-reliance on litigation, a movement tends to lose its activist grass roots edge.

The civil rights movement started out as a both a popular and litigation movement gaining momentum in the 1950s with Brown and the 1960s with sit ins and demonstrations.

Because of the victory in the Supreme Court and federal courts over desegregation, way too much effort was put into litigating increasingly esoteric civil rights and busing cases, while the African American community largely disengaged and left the remaining desegregation efforts to "the experts."

Then Nixon began making appointments to SCOTUS and all that effort went down the drain, with no popular movement to fall back on.

The LGBT movement has gone through almost exactly the same process, focusing on winning court cases, and lo and behold, court cases can be overturned by whipping up a popular frenzy of opposition.