Snippets about: LGBTQ
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The Long Arc of Changing Attitudes Toward Gay Rights
In the early 1980s, when Evan Wolfson wrote his law school thesis making the case for same-sex marriage, the idea was so far outside the mainstream that he couldn't find a professor willing to serve as his advisor. Popular culture, exemplified by the 1969 bestseller Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), portrayed gay men as promiscuous, maladjusted, and incapable of stable relationships.
The AIDS crisis further stigmatized gay life in the public imagination. In 2004, a majority of Americans supported amending the U.S. Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage.
Yet by 2012, the tide had dramatically turned, with a rapid cascade of states legalizing same-sex marriage and polls registering solid majority support. Once considered an impossibility, gay marriage became the norm in a historical blink of an eye. Understanding this dizzying transformation requires looking beyond politics to the realm of popular culture.
Section: 3, Chapter: 8
Book: Revenge of the Tipping Point
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
The Rules of Representing Gay Life on TV
Scholar Bonnie Dow identified persistent patterns in how gay characters were portrayed on American television from the 1970s through the 1990s:
- Gay characters are only peripheral in stories ostensibly about them. They are foils designed to teach the straight characters tolerance.
- Being gay is presented as the overwhelming problem in a gay character's life, often leading to misery and death.
- Gay characters appear in isolation, never in community with other gay people.
These tropes reinforced a dominant tragic narrative of homosexuality incompatible with fulfillment or social integration. Hit 1990s shows like Doing Time on Maple Drive centered a gay character's struggle, but still portrayed him as an anomaly, a Problem to be Solved. Such shows did little to undermine the assumption that heterosexuality was the necessary bedrock of family life.
Section: 3, Chapter: 8
Book: Revenge of the Tipping Point
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
"Will & Grace" Subverts Sitcom Tropes To Normalize Gay Characters
The hit 1998 sitcom "Will & Grace" featured gay lawyer Will and his straight female friend Grace as leads, with gay character Jack as a flamboyant sidekick. Though criticized by some as stereotypical, the show subverted common TV tropes by:
- Making gay characters central to the story
- Not treating gayness as a problem to be solved
- Showing gay characters with gay friends and community
While Will remained celibate, the show portrayed him as a successful, funny, relatable person who just happened to be gay - a radical step for 90s network TV.
Section: 3, Chapter: 8
Book: Revenge of the Tipping Point
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
