In 1996, less than 30% of Americans supported gay marriage and no major political party advocated for it. Today, that support is about 70% and in theory both parties support gay marriage, though one a fair bit more than the other. news.gallup.com/poll/1651/ga... You *can* move public opinion. - ThreadSky

bretdevereaux.bsky.social • 10 days ago

In 1996, less than 30% of Americans supported gay marriage and no major political party advocated for it.

Today, that support is about 70% and in theory both parties support gay marriage, though one a fair bit more than the other.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/1651/gay-lesbian-rights.aspx

You *can* move public opinion.

Comments

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•10 days ago

You know you can reach these folks, the 'random racist in Ohio' because we've done it before. Over and over again before.

Declaring that positive social change is impossible because we don't want to do the hard, unsatisfying work of making it happen is a form of giving up on the future.

two-star.bsky.social•9 days ago

The depressing thing is that who does the most to reach them is moderate conservatives whose views are generally mildly reprehensible, but on this one issue they are enlightened, so that gives permission to the median reprehensible voter to shift left, on that issue only.

two-star.bsky.social•9 days ago

Progressives are never going to warm to the hard, unsatisfying work of being Andrew freaking Sullivan.

dryad.technology•9 days ago

While I was knocking on doors for No On 8 arguing cis gays like Andrew Sullivan deserved rights, Andrew Sullivan was arguing dirty transfolk like me don't deserve rights. I would prefer that literally nobody do the work of being Andrew Sullivan.

lenazun.bsky.social•10 days ago

i like how you jumped here to the aggro “Declaring that positive social change is impossible because we don't want to do the hard work”. great way to engage with someone you know nothing about 👍

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•10 days ago

If you're not doing that, then the critique doesn't apply to you.

Note I didn't say 'you don't want' - I don't know what you want. I don't know you.

So I said, 'we' - because I think some people are effectively giving up on the future. I don't know if that's you; that's up to you, not me.

lenazun.bsky.social•10 days ago

what i’m saying here, to the original poster, is there are other reasons to protest. “winning public opinion” can’t be the only one. i’m not going to wait for public opinion to switch in favor of my trans friends, we only have one life.

irredeemablebunny.bsky.social•10 days ago

And what exactly do you expect to happen that will be quicker than "winning public opinion"?

lenazun.bsky.social•10 days ago

you’re right, we should all stay peaceful and be good little minorities until the rest of the country votes to give us rights.

irredeemablebunny.bsky.social•10 days ago

No. But if you think you're getting rights without public support, you're delusional.

lenazun.bsky.social•10 days ago

popular support or not, ICE didn’t detain another 2000 workers today because they were busy dealing with some good anger. maybe that’s more immediately effective than trying to convince the public of our humanity?

robink.bsky.social•10 days ago

Disruption doesn’t mean holding the streets, it means interrupting or disrupting the business at hand when needed. Like recent waves of strikes, being unpredictable is a useful tactic.

irredeemablebunny.bsky.social•10 days ago

Nah, very often it means literally holding the streets, targeted disruption is not always possible.

beatrix.bsky.social•10 days ago

i can't speak for Bret, but for what it's worth, i didn't read what he was saying as "don't advocate in favor of issues that public opinion is mixed or negative on"

lenazun.bsky.social•10 days ago

but we’re not talking about advocacy, we’re talking about protest. those are different things.

beatrix.bsky.social•10 days ago

protest is generally a form of advocacy, no?

lenazun.bsky.social•10 days ago

no, that’s exactly what i’m arguing. you can protest for other reasons, not necessarily because you want to change anybody’s mind about you.

lenazun.bsky.social•10 days ago

there are other ways of organizing that are more effective at moving public opinion. protests are not it.

jdkessey.bsky.social•10 days ago

Its frustrating work, even dangerous. We don't do this work because its easy or because there will be medals at the end. We do it so the next generations live in a world more better and free than the current one. They don't deserve that future, they are owed that future.

dryad.technology•10 days ago

I've lost track of where this conversation's going. If my opinion matters, what I'd say is *if* people's minds in Ohio are going to get changed, it probably won't be by decisions of protesters in California. I think the people in Ohio need to do that work and the LA crowd would best just focus on LA

avamanda.bsky.social•8 days ago

In a national media environment designed to play up images of violence and chaos, that strikes me as just a bit too shortsighted. Whatever people on camera do in the second-largest city of this country will have an impact on what their allies can do anywhere else in it.

patricklasalle.bsky.social•10 days ago

I just finished my Masters thesis on Oregon's anti-gay Ballot Measure 9 from 1992 and ran across a few gay marriage articles. Not only was it treated as super fringe, but so were partner benefits. Crazy how far we've come in such little time.

lenazun.bsky.social•10 days ago

black people have been protesting for their rights for centuries now and every single time “public opinion” manages to find a way to disapprove

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