出柜才是The Key to Same-Sex Marriage's Fast Acceptance# LES - 同女之舞
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The Key to Same-Sex Marriage's Fast Acceptance: The Courage to Come Out
看到这篇文章觉得说的非常好 感同身受 不过我也很理解选择不出柜 需要型婚的同学
。毕竟每个人都有选择自己生活方式的权利
The passage of the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 was intended in part "to
express moral disapproval of homosexuality." Less than two decades later,
multiple states have blessed same-sex marriage.
What explains the rapid change?
John Roberts raised that question Wednesday at the Supreme Court. "I suppose
the sea change has a lot to do with the political force and effectiveness
of people representing, supporting your side of the case," he told a lawyer
who wanted DOMA struck down. "You don't doubt that the lobby supporting the
enactment of same sex-marriage laws in different States is politically
powerful, do you? .... Political figures are falling over themselves to
endorse your side of the case .... I'm just trying to see where that comes
from, if not from the political effectiveness of groups on your side."
I can think of a source that may be far more significant.
Yes, political activism by groups favoring same-sex marriage has been
important. So have essays by people like Andrew Sullivan, who helped to
pioneer the intellectual arguments for same-sex marriage. What I suspect,
however, is that the most important factor of all has been the decision by
countless gays and lesbians to come out of the closet and be open about
their identities.
"A poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, released
last week and conducted in mid-March, found that 14 percent of Americans say
they have changed their minds about same-sex marriage. Roughly a third of
them told pollsters it was because they know someone -- a friend or family
member or other acquaintance -- who is gay," the Los Angeles Times reports.
And the reason that so many young people grow up supporting gay marriage,
compared to their cohort a generation ago, is partly that their coming of
age has been spent conceiving of gays and lesbians as real people whom they
know, not abstract others who are easily stigmatized and demonized by virtue
of being made into untested caricatures.
Having even one gay friend or co-worker is enough for many straight people
to unconsciously conclude that the mainstream descriptions of homosexuality
from just a generation ago are absurd.
As Neil Steinberg put it, "All that coming out of the closet worked."
He adds some tragic context: the role the AIDS epidemic played in forcing
gay people out of the closet. "The old bargain -- stay silent and we won't
hurt you, maybe -- was now a fatal compromise. Silence = Death," he wrote. "
So gay people became more visible. Families that didn't know they had gay
members discovered -- not typically to their delight -- they did. Businesses
found they had gay employees .... Coming out was never easy -- it's not
easy now, as growing acceptance is one thing, facing your own dad something
very different. It takes courage. And most gay men and lesbians no doubt
think of coming out in private terms. But they should also realize that it
had enormous political implications, which pollsters like Pew are now seeing
."
Exposure to gays doesn't change the minds of sincere traditionalists whose
opposition to gay marriage is rooted in a notion of marriage as a
sacramental, procreative institution, rather than one grounded in love. But
as public opinion on divorce law and prevailing attitudes about straight
marriage attest, that is a tiny group of people -- not nearly enough to
constitute a majority that can block gay marriage. That requires the
addition of the "yuck, gays" vote, which is rapidly shrinking. It turns out
that once Americans get to know gay people they find they rather like them.
看到这篇文章觉得说的非常好 感同身受 不过我也很理解选择不出柜 需要型婚的同学
。毕竟每个人都有选择自己生活方式的权利
The passage of the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 was intended in part "to
express moral disapproval of homosexuality." Less than two decades later,
multiple states have blessed same-sex marriage.
What explains the rapid change?
John Roberts raised that question Wednesday at the Supreme Court. "I suppose
the sea change has a lot to do with the political force and effectiveness
of people representing, supporting your side of the case," he told a lawyer
who wanted DOMA struck down. "You don't doubt that the lobby supporting the
enactment of same sex-marriage laws in different States is politically
powerful, do you? .... Political figures are falling over themselves to
endorse your side of the case .... I'm just trying to see where that comes
from, if not from the political effectiveness of groups on your side."
I can think of a source that may be far more significant.
Yes, political activism by groups favoring same-sex marriage has been
important. So have essays by people like Andrew Sullivan, who helped to
pioneer the intellectual arguments for same-sex marriage. What I suspect,
however, is that the most important factor of all has been the decision by
countless gays and lesbians to come out of the closet and be open about
their identities.
"A poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, released
last week and conducted in mid-March, found that 14 percent of Americans say
they have changed their minds about same-sex marriage. Roughly a third of
them told pollsters it was because they know someone -- a friend or family
member or other acquaintance -- who is gay," the Los Angeles Times reports.
And the reason that so many young people grow up supporting gay marriage,
compared to their cohort a generation ago, is partly that their coming of
age has been spent conceiving of gays and lesbians as real people whom they
know, not abstract others who are easily stigmatized and demonized by virtue
of being made into untested caricatures.
Having even one gay friend or co-worker is enough for many straight people
to unconsciously conclude that the mainstream descriptions of homosexuality
from just a generation ago are absurd.
As Neil Steinberg put it, "All that coming out of the closet worked."
He adds some tragic context: the role the AIDS epidemic played in forcing
gay people out of the closet. "The old bargain -- stay silent and we won't
hurt you, maybe -- was now a fatal compromise. Silence = Death," he wrote. "
So gay people became more visible. Families that didn't know they had gay
members discovered -- not typically to their delight -- they did. Businesses
found they had gay employees .... Coming out was never easy -- it's not
easy now, as growing acceptance is one thing, facing your own dad something
very different. It takes courage. And most gay men and lesbians no doubt
think of coming out in private terms. But they should also realize that it
had enormous political implications, which pollsters like Pew are now seeing
."
Exposure to gays doesn't change the minds of sincere traditionalists whose
opposition to gay marriage is rooted in a notion of marriage as a
sacramental, procreative institution, rather than one grounded in love. But
as public opinion on divorce law and prevailing attitudes about straight
marriage attest, that is a tiny group of people -- not nearly enough to
constitute a majority that can block gay marriage. That requires the
addition of the "yuck, gays" vote, which is rapidly shrinking. It turns out
that once Americans get to know gay people they find they rather like them.
