How did the gay community gain so much clout?

This op-ed articulates a lot of questions I have about how LGBT seems uncommonly powerful for relatively tiny group of activists. Careers get ruined over it, big money lawsuits happen, social media accounts get obliterated..

Here it is:

Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Instagram
Home
News
Business
Politics
Sports
Opinion
Food
Health
Entertainment
Features
Obituaries
Real Estate
e-Edition
Newsletters
Photo Galleries
Videos
Advertising
Contests
Sponsored Content
Classifieds
Other Sites
Subscribe
Careers

83°
Partly Cloudy
Toggle navigationMENU
Buy & Sell
Customer Service
Subscribe
e-Edition
Obituaries
How did gay community gain so much clout?
BY KIRKPATRICK SALE

Apr 10, 2015
Facebook
Twitter
Email
How did gay community gain so much clout?
In this March 25, 2015 file photo, a window sticker promising service to all is displayed in opposition to the state new religious objections law in downtown Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Print
Save
Subscribe for $2.98 / week
The recent flap over an innocent law in Indiana protecting religious rights got taken, even before the ink was cold, to be an attack on homosexuals, particularly same-sex marriages, and quickly drew national attention. A powerful gay-rights lobby went into immediate and high-powered action, threatening boycotts and protests, and it didn’t take days before the law was amended.

How did this lobby develop such power, with instant media and political clout, and how is it able to cow elected officials so effectively?

Well, it’s not because it represents a significant part of the American population. In fact, a recent poll by Gallup published in The New York Times estimates that there are only approximately 3 million homosexual men in the cities of the United States, a finding that comports well with previous studies. Perhaps the most comprehensive one was by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention using 2013 census data, which estimated 1.6 per cent of the population as lesbian or gay, and roughly 0.7 per cent as bisexual. What all that means is that a tiny percentage of the American population is not straight heterosexual — say, 2 percent, or 6.2 million people.

My question is: why do they have so much influence in American society, politics and culture? Why is the dispute over same-sex marriage front-page news and the source of multiple lawsuits? Why are there now gay characters peppered throughout television series and openly gay sexual acts depicted, and even whole series given over to homosexual and lesbian themes? Why did Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State put forth gay rights — actually the whole gamut, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender — as an important American cause?

I have no objection to seeing homosexuals enjoy equal rights and establish a place in our culture. What I am asking is how did such a tiny percentage of the public get to have such sway over American life, when comparable minorities, at least in terms of numbers, have nothing like that influence.

There are nearly 15 million Asians in the United States, but do we see them massing for their rights and demanding that there be Asians on TV shows, or even whole networks devoted to their cause? Do the Polish-Americans, said to be some 9 million people, ask for Polish characters and Polish themes in movies, and measure, with full media attention, how many Polish characters there are on ABC Family and Fox? Are the 6 million American Jews boycotting stores that sell pork?

American Indians, who by any measure deserve some primary place in our national conscience, number a little over 5 million people, just under 2 percent. Every so often, mostly around Columbus Day, you hear something about activists asking for more Indians in Hollywood films (or at least real Indians playing Indian parts). But for at least 40 years, American tribes have been owed something like $3.2 billion that the American government has earned from mineral and other extractions from Indian lands, and while there have been Indian protests and lawsuits, it has remained an invisible issue for most Americans. And even the scandal of the Bureau of Indian Affairs losing $2 billion of that money and not being able to find it has not caused any national attention. And remember, these are the people against whom we committed genocide.

Sign up for our new opinion newsletter

Get a weekly recap of South Carolina opinion and analysis from The Post and Courier in your inbox on Monday evenings.

Email

Sign Up!

I suppose it could be said that it is the fault of these people for not organizing, not learning how to control the media, not sufficiently proving that their rights have somehow been violated. The homosexual community, especially after Stonewall and in the face of AIDS, was a masterful example of how to achieve all of that, and it took plenty of hard work, devotion, money and skill to do it.

But there’s something more than that. Indians, after all, have organized, have protested, have sued, and their moral claim is the highest of all, yet their collective political and media power is minuscule. There is something more in the homosexual cause that seems to get to American hearts and minds and make their claims to equal anti-discrimination protection legitimate. Something that even convinces more and more Americans that the bizarre idea of marriage between two people of the same sex, which for most of human history was not only not proposed but for the most part not even thought of, is not only legal but morally uplifting. There is something more playing at the American psyche that has seen gay marriage gain public support faster than any other social cause I can think of in the last 50 years.

I am not, alas, able to identify that “something more” with any precision. My initial instinct is to say that it has to do with the victory in America’s cultural wars of the academic skullduggery known as political correctness. Once everything is judged by p.c. standards, all minorities, no matter how small or what their characteristics, must be accorded equality, and if they have been denied that for a long time their case is especially strong. And that matters most in the area of sex and gender, an area that Americans are uneasy about in the first place. Hence the cause of homosexuality, and the attendant unusual gender orientations, has come to the American psychic, and thus political, fore.

Kirkpatrick Sale, who lives in Mount Pleasant, is the author of twelve books of political and ecological studies.

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Print
Save
This Week's Circulars
We're improving out commenting experience.
We’ve temporarily removed comments from articles while we work on a new and better commenting experience. In the meantime, subscribers are encouraged to join the conversation at our Post and Courier Subscribers group on Facebook.

Join the P&C Subscribers Facebook Group

Site Links
About
Staff
Mobile Apps
Newsletters
Become a member
Place an Ad
Advertising Rates
Editorial
Classifieds
RSS Feed
Related Properties
Aiken Standard - Aiken, SC
Georgetown Times - Georgetown, SC
South Strand News - Pawleys Island & Murrells Inlet, SC
The Gazette - Goose Creek, SC
The News - Kingstree, SC
The Berkeley Independent - Moncks Corner, SC
Moultrie News - Mount Pleasant, SC
The Star - North Augusta, SC
Journal Scene - Summerville, SC
Free Times - Columbia, SC
Evening Post Books - Charleston, SC

Contact Information
Post and Courier
134 Columbus Street
Charleston, SC 29403

Phone: 843-577-7111
News tips/online questions: [email protected]

Delivery/subscription questions: [email protected]

Follow Us
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Instagram
© 2019, Post and Courier, an Evening Post Industries company. All rights reserved. | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
​

https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/how-did-gay-community-gain-so-much-clout/article_3e0a0806-a5ab-5efd-8435-ce1a82b28937.html

Pretty fair points here, imo. You certainly don't see Asians or Native Americans with anywhere near this level of "taboo-ism". Even the Muslim and Jewish communities are nowhere near as well protected from slander, to the point where even a hint of bigotry ends a career (Or protects one from wrong doing).

By what metric do they have "so much clout"? What's the tangible difference between having too much clout vs too little vs having just the right amount?

Your premise is shaky from the get-go.

Furthermore, "but X doesn't have as much representation as Y" is a meme argument that bigots use to try to invalidate causes. You see it a lot from people who complain about BLM, for example. The reason why native American causes and Asian causes have less prominence in social consciousness is because closed mouths don't get fed.

I personally think it’s a two fold answer. Also, Gays and LGBT’s are two different beast. Most gay people in this day in age don’t really care about the frivolity and the mundane shits of not being represented. Gays knows in the West they have it made, because let’s be honest, when was the last time you saw an attack on gay people. It happens, but it’s rare.

Now as for LGBT’s

Those in power are using the LGBT’s as a way to divide people. They’ve even went so far as to **** with kids. Dressing them in drags and all that shits, and you say something, your anti.

And the second part, the majority of people just don’t care enough about such things. Myself personally could careless about anyone’s preferences, and those in power sees this, so they use it to divide us.

Democrats have long believed in the Minority holding the Power over the Majority.

That is how Tyranny Works!

At first I was going to argue about the numbers but the numbers are comparable so that's a fair point.

Then I was going to argue about being born that way but I saw that the author used only examples of people "born that way" so that's also a fair point.

So the best answer is what Blaxican said: those who whine the loudest get the attention. And we all know "drama queen" is a gender neutral label. 🙂

Originally posted by dadudemon
At first I was going to argue about the numbers but the numbers are comparable so that's a fair point.

Then I was going to argue about being born that way but I saw that the author used only examples of people "born that way" so that's also a fair point.

So the best answer is what Blaxican said: those who whine the loudest get the attention. And we all know "drama queen" is a gender neutral label. 🙂

Isn't whining only effective, because it targets altruistic people who would back people's right to exist free of discrimination anyways?

I don't know about you, but I've never been converted to anything. Back in the 1980's/1990's, I was usually the one trying to argue "So WHAT if they don't make a baby. Who CARES what happened in some European country that legalized gay marriage."

Or any other stupid argument common to the era.

The thing was, backing a cause is never just about THAT ONE CAUSE. You don't just say, "Hey, gays got a bad rap", and then thumb your nose as Native Americans.

I mean, I also realize people's empathy is not infinite. This concept that only things that get talked about all the time matter to people does not compute, though. If that's the case, I doubt people really care at all. Caring isn't a trend. It's just something you do, even if no one says a word in complaint.

And if that holds true, I return to my question of "Why do some oppressed groups have more clout then others."

If it's not truely the "Will of the people", who seem capricious to only acknowledge what's trending or popular, and petty in the use of another's oppression to enjoy arguing politics, maybe there's an "X factor" we just aren't seeing here.

Probably because they know who all the closeted gay senators and congressmen that regularly **** rent boys are.

Originally posted by dadudemon

So the best answer is what Blaxican said: those who whine the loudest get the attention. And we all know "drama queen" is a gender neutral label. 🙂

^Just described accurately why Trump targeted "The Squad". Glad we cleared that up, folk need not cry racism anymore 👆

Originally posted by cdtm
This op-ed articulates a lot of questions I have about how LGBT seems uncommonly powerful for relatively tiny group of activists. Careers get ruined over it, big money lawsuits happen, social media accounts get obliterated..

Here it is:

https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/how-did-gay-community-gain-so-much-clout/article_3e0a0806-a5ab-5efd-8435-ce1a82b28937.html

Pretty fair points here, imo. You certainly don't see Asians or Native Americans with anywhere near this level of "taboo-ism". Even the Muslim and Jewish communities are nowhere near as well protected from slander, to the point where even a hint of bigotry ends a career (Or protects one from wrong doing).

Two words: Gay Mafia

Originally posted by Surtur
Two words: Gay Mafia

That looks more like a Gay Biker Nazi.

Are you insulting a capo in the DiMeo crime family?

Originally posted by cdtm
Isn't whining only effective, because it targets altruistic people who would back people's right to exist free of discrimination anyways?

I don't know about you, but I've never been converted to anything. Back in the 1980's/1990's, I was usually the one trying to argue "So WHAT if they don't make a baby. Who CARES what happened in some European country that legalized gay marriage."

Or any other stupid argument common to the era.

The thing was, backing a cause is never just about THAT ONE CAUSE. You don't just say, "Hey, gays got a bad rap", and then thumb your nose as Native Americans.

I mean, I also realize people's empathy is not infinite. This concept that only things that get talked about all the time matter to people does not compute, though. If that's the case, I doubt people really care at all. Caring isn't a trend. It's just something you do, even if no one says a word in complaint.

And if that holds true, I return to my question of "Why do some oppressed groups have more clout then others."

If it's not truely the "Will of the people", who seem capricious to only acknowledge what's trending or popular, and petty in the use of another's oppression to enjoy arguing politics, maybe there's an "X factor" we just aren't seeing here.

To answer OP's question in a nutshell:

YouTube video

There are plenty of homosexuals who simply want to be accepted into society and go about their business. Then there are those in the LGBT cult who seek unlimited attention due to serious underlying mental-health issues. Some are ironically intolerant of heterosexuals and spew messages of hating said individuals, hence the recruitment of children at a young age via drag queens.

Saw one in person recently. They appeared visibly unhealthy physically, and the look on his face just walking around gave off the vibe that this individual is mentally unwell.

Also in-case my position on trans people hasn't been made clear before, I firmly believe they are mentally ill individuals with serious anxiety-related conditions who seek gender reassignment as a coping mechanism of sorts.

First Trumpers came for [insert group] etc. It's happening now.

Originally posted by Putinbot1
First Trumpers come for [insert group] etc. It's happening now.

🙄

four words and no more:
MEDIA AND DEGRADED THINKING

Originally posted by snowdragon
🙄

He's trying so hard, isn't he?

Originally posted by Putinbot1
First Trumpers came for [insert group] etc. It's happening now.

Can you please name those so called groups?

Not being an ass, just curious since you made such a strong remark.