LogFAQs > #950381003

PerfectChaosZ posted...

Uhhh I was there when the fight for gay marriage started on the ground floor when there were like five of us getting spat on by the public you so want to court and did activism working for many many years to get it passed so choose your words carefully. There have been a million stories. But I remember this one particular instance, "we're here, we're queer, get used to it!" was much maligned as too aggressive, and people in the community just wanted us to tone done being gay to appease the non-LGBT watching but that doesn't work because it doesn't matter how you act it's your policy that they don't like and anything else is just an excuse to not like it. They will find another excuse.

Honestly, gay marriage is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. In 2008, California had a proposition on the ballot to legalize gay marriage. 2008 was also the year Barack Obama was on the ballot for the presidency. And in 2008, voters turned out en masse (especially minority voters) to vote for Barack Obama...which, despite him being a liberal candidate, also led to the gay marriage legalization failing at the polls. Essentially, the opportunity to vote for Barack Obama inspired a large number of minority voters to turn out compared to their regular numbers...but those voters are historically religious conservatives, and their inspiration to vote led to them turning out to vote against gay marriage, which was a policy in stark contrast to their religious conservative values.

If you support a policy that has minority support in the overall population, then inspiring apathy among your detractors is a far more effective strategy than trying to convert them to your cause. It's the reason the GOP is still a relevant political party, since all they need to do is make Democrats feel like everything is hopeless and nothing will ever change, and their reduce voters turnout and win elections.

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