Cal Prop 8, discrimination, and the progress of our society

I live in the Bay area - and many of my friends are very disappointed with the results of the vote on Prop. 8. I do not believe the challenges that are pending will make any difference - and so their only hope for the future is that another proposition at a later time can reverse this one.

But what does that result reveal about our society - especially in view of the numerous other changes that have been taking place?

The first conclusion that comes to me is that we are further ahead on dealing with the subliminal racism that has been part of our society for the last three hundred years than we are on dealing with the prejudice against those who have a "different" sexual orientation.

This is not overly surprising - it was only in 1973 that the DSM-III removed homosexuality as a mental disorder (but retained it as a diagnosis) and not until 1986 with DSM-IV was it finally removed entirely. Even in the late seventies supposedly intelligent psychiatrists fought the changes. (http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/HTML/facts_mental_health.HTML)

The Stonewall riots of 1969 were the beginning of an activist gay movement that has made tremendous progress in public acceptance, but some anthropologists suggest that at least two generations are required for a change in social memes.

Unfortunately, the "in-your-face" approach used by some activists over the last 40 years has seen the formation of a backlash that the gay community has to recognize and deal with.

I remember a Father's day several years ago when I took my children to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. The SF gay community chose that day to stage a protest parade.

The fact that a number of the protestors chose to march in the streets wearing nothing but transparent thongs was not, IMHO, a move designed to encourage support from otherwise open-minded folk. The cry for equality cuts both ways - heterosexuals engaging in such behavior would have been arrested for public indecency.

And that UNEQUAL treatment instills even more fear in those who feel threatened by public displays of differences.

Massachussetts enacted a gay marriage law with relatively little protest and muted opposition.

Perhaps that was due to the more muted activism of those in support of that law.

So to my gay friends I urge consideration of the possibility that offending public mores simply to make a statement may be counterproductive.

But I do not want to appear to be blaming the victim. Just as I believe that the judge who opines that a woman who is wearing provocative clothing "asked for it" if she is raped is a troglodyte, I believe that those who justify their prejudice by generalizing from the more outrageous activists to the much larger gay population who live their lives in accordance with general social ettiquette are driven by their own fears or those instilled in them by (largely from the Christian right) activists on the other side.

I believe the last scientific argument that gays and lesbians are so by "choice" has been laid to rest - there is far too much evidence that genetic and other factors control our preferences to continue treating homosexuality as unnatural. The fact that many species have a certain percentage of homosexual individuals would support the opposite conclusion.

The fact that a disproportionate percentage of highly creative and innovate ideas are introduced by those members of our society who have a "different" orientation may support the notion that there are evolutionary co-factors involved.

The bottom line is that a percentage of the population has been homosexual throughout recorded history - and that it may therefore be posited that this is in fact "natural."

Over time I firmly believe that the society WILL change and become more accepting.

The election of the first president who does not waffle on the rights of gays in our society is, I think a sign of things to come.

Keep the faith - we may yet in our lifetimes see the world that MLK envisioned - adding to his non-reasons for judging people that of their sexual orientation.