On Consciousness Raising

samesexmarriagemale samesexmarriagefemale
USA TODAY published an OpEd 5/30/14 in their weekend edition Modern Family in High Court,” concerning the effect of images, video and grass-roots activism as a significant mediator of social change, as exemplified in the recent dramatic turnaround in US courts and public acceptance of gay and lesbian marriage; marriage equality.
Michael Dorf a law professor at Cornell discusses the impact of media: TV, movies, photo images, etc., on social change on such topics as inter-racial marriage, the abuses at Abu Ghraib, and most recently marriage equality. He points out arguments come into play as well citing “the vitriol of the homophobic right, which opposed same-sex marriage, thus energizing the movement for the very institution it feared.”
Read that “homophobic religious right” as I’m not aware of any secular groups opposed to marriage equality or who preach “love the sinner, hate the sin” or some such nonsense. Haven’t seen anyone carrying multicolored signs proclaiming:
Reason Hates Fags” recently either.
It’s a good bet it is predominantly if not solely Conservative Xiansanity™ that’s to blame for any homophobia and same-sex marriage opposition we have in the US.
Recent polls show the majority of Americans do not oppose marriage equality, evidently not buying into the various Biblical based, illogical (isn’t that redundant?) arguments offered by Xiansanity™.

Just 3 pages before this OpEd another article in USA TODAY’s Nation section discussed the recent tidal wave of victories at the state level legalizing same-sex marriage: “Victories propel gay marriage“. From the text:
Advocates for same sex marriage count 19 consecutive victories since the high (Supreme) court ruled that the federal government must recognize same-sex marriages performed in states where it is legal.”
It appears that whether it is the understanding that religious arguments are not realistic and based in repressive interpretations of someone’s scripture, that through images, TV and movies, or just seeing, knowing gay folks regularly in one’s daily life and through the consciousness raising efforts of gay-lesbian activists over the past 2-3 decades (AND the Internet) all these combined have educated the average American to realize that sexual orientation is nothing to get excited about or at very least NOT a criteria to discriminate against fellow citizens.

When people are educated, when they know better, bullshit ideas lose their power.
Information Kills Religion.

(656)

Share

Comments

comments

Leave a Reply