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.
It was brute forced through the courts.
One by one. Pride parades, organizng that way, constant badgering of the dems for decades. After decades of ignoring grassroots, the real grassroots did it themselves. The national DC groups kept kicking the can. Prolonging their cocktail party grifts.
… I ahh 
mean being “P r A g M a T i C”
It is why I stopped giving to the Human Rights Campaign / ACLU. I learned a LOT about thier games and their fake “we’re fighting for you” grifting bullshit.
The Don’t ask Don’t Tell military ban. The excuse they kept making was “we need more studies! It hasn’t been studied enough!” So I sent Sen. Carl Levin over 60 years of independent and governments studies provong that gays in the military do not pose a threat to unit rediness or cohesion. It was more of a risk banning gays because of society’s negative impression drives depression, secrecy, increased risky behavior. The only thing really holding it back was the Politicians and their own political risk due to what amounted public ignorance and sterotypes.
To my suprise Sen. Levin sent a real response (positive) and not a canned one.
Did the government’s job and research for them to nullify their lame ass
exuses.
As for inside the military, besides the national negative sterotypes that were being fed by hard line KKKristian groups like the American Family Association, and Focus on the Family. (Colorado springs) or the Mormons (tons in the military) or Catholics or Baptists. It was the military Wives club making a huge stink about it. That was because the spouse holds the social rank of their serving spouse. Many had a hard time “HAVING A MALE INVADE FEMALE SPACES” or having to yield to a gay man. But I think deep down they knew we cooked better and threw better parties, but it was the Wives club holding back progrees in the military. “We need more studies and surveys!”
After decades of pragmatic can kicking people started to self fund, organize local and state to sue the state governments to drag the politicans who were always for our rights kicking and screaming.
It is tragic that I see the country let trans rights get dragged down virtually unopposed. But grifters need a grift and they don’t have a grift without
suffering to exploit.
If you are in the mood for some reading I highly reccomend Deboer vs Snyder: A case study in Litigation and Social Reform. PDF
It was a real “Fine. I’ll do it myself” working around the instuitions and brute forcing through the instutions. It gained momentum where the system ran out of excuses.