All the other times I can think of that people won rights in this country, it was because people radicalized their churches or unions and then linked them up into a movement.
But when I try to look up how gay marriage happened, I’m finding things crediting liberal organizations or important lawyers, if it’s not just passive voice implying the states just started legalizing gay marriage for no particular reason.
So like… what was the actual organizing principle behind that? Who did the pressuring? I figured a bunch of you would know, so I’m asking.
David Geffen threw a bunch of money at it in CA and once the legality was worked out there it was easier to do in other states. Top liberal politicians were against it out of fear it would hurt them with conservatives. Obamna refused to say he supported it until it had traction. Hillary was saying marriage is between a man and a woman on CSPAN during the Bush admin. You can find a video of it with Neera Tanden sitting behind her. One it took off they came around to support it. So it was a grassroots thing with wealthy people in California backing it.
The big thing I always point to is that it took dragging the Democrats left, kicking and screaming to get it through. And even then it had to be done through the courts not the legislature, which the Democrats then immediately gave up nationally to the Republicans.
It’s hard to appreciate how jarring it was/is to go from all these liberal darlings flat out refusing to accept gay marriage to being slay qween gay icons somehow. But they took so much credit for it and today maintain that it was all them. These fuckers have the audacity to put rainbow lights on the White House now like they’re not internally cringing at the thought. It’s not easy to say this but I kinda wish we had the social media and smart phones we have now because the receipts would be incredible. It’s like Iraq War support but somehow more memory-holed.