August 12, 2024

"Flailing about for relevance since the legalization of same-sex marriage, many gay-rights groups pivoted to a related but fundamentally different cause..."

"... transgender rights. Rather than emulate the movement’s past approach—seeking allies across the political spectrum and accepting compromise as a precondition for legal and social progress—they have taken hard-line left-wing positions. LGBTQ groups repeat the mantra 'the science is settled' on the extremely complex and fraught subject of youth gender medicine and insist that anyone who questions the provision of puberty blockers to gender-dysphoric children is transphobic.... Meanwhile, LGBTQ organizations have slowly been erasing the people whose interests they were established to advance. Less and less do they even use the words gay and lesbian to describe their ostensible constituencies; more and more, they use queer, a historically pejorative term reclaimed by left-wing ideologues...."

Writes James Kirchick, in "How the Gay-Rights Movement Lost Its Way/What should activist groups such as GLAAD do after they fulfill their goals?" (The Atlantic).

ADDED: This makes me think of something Bob Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his 1964 album "Another Side":
first of all two people get
together an' they want their doors
enlarged. second of all, more
people see what's happenin' an'
come t' help with the door
enlargement. the ones that arrive
however have nothin' more than
"let's get these doors enlarged"
t' say t' the ones who were
there in the first place. it follows then that
the whole thing revolves around
nothing but this door enlargement idea.
third of all, there's a group now existin'
an' the only thing that keeps them friends
is that they all want the doors enlarged.
obviously, the doors're then enlarged
fourth of all,
after this enlargement
the group has t' find
something else t' keep
them together or
else the door enlargement
will prove t' be
embarrassing

66 comments:

Peachy said...

Gays Against Groomers.... is real..

They mean it.

Achilles said...

After something like GLAAD achieves their goals they demonstrate what their goal was all along.

Gusty Winds said...

I always understood that gay couples needed legal protections marriage offers. End of life protections etc... But I'm shocked that it morphed into "let's cut the dicks off kids". It's not just fringe. Gay people I know, who would have never thought of this type of horror ten years ago, are now ALL IN!

Why couldn't they just accomplish gay marriage and live in peace? Watch the Oscars. Sing show tunes. No. They had to go into recruitment phase in a horrible way.

Just like the Jesuits.

Leland said...

Pivot? Lots of people noted at the time of the debates about “same sex marriage” that this would be the next progression. When you redefine terms well defined for millennium, it was obvious other terms would be redefined, such as “woman”. That’s a trans issue, the definition of a woman, and now the Olympics just ended with supposedly women only events, and the IOC President says there is no scientific way to determine who is a woman.
People noted then and now that soon pedophilia would be normalized. Already in California, minors, which used to mean something completely different, can consent to life altering changes to their body without any person legally able to block them. If “minors” can “consent” to such life altering changes to their sexual reproduction system, why wouldn’t they then be allowed to “consent” on how and when those organs are used. The definitions have changed.
There is no pivot. It was the plan all along.

Gusty Winds said...

The biggest mistake the Gay movement made was allowing itself to be intersectionally aligned with liberal suburban white women. The husbands and neighbors could have warned them. When it comes to the child mutilation transgender push, liberal white women chant the loudest.

Paul said...

Perverts are always happy to push rights for other perverts.

Mr Wibble said...

Gosh, a multi-billion dollar movement that gives a whole bunch of broken people direction in their lives and social status among their peers won't go away just because it accomplished its goal? Shocking!

The eventual backlash against homosexuals is going to be very ugly, and I'm going to laugh and laugh.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Not buying his premise. The "Gay-Rights Movement" achieved its stated goals, to be treated equally (non-discrimination in employment etc.) and to marry nationwide. Activists separate from the gay rights "movement" are never satisfied with achieving stated goals. Trying to co-opt gays and lesbians into the crazy transactivist's tilting at windmills appears to not be working so well.

Temujin said...

They lost it when they went after the kids.

Bob Boyd said...

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
― Eric Hoffer

MadTownGuy said...

Just before The Atlantic's paywall:

"I>The impulse among activists, once successful, to keep raising money necessitates that they find things to spend it on."

The object of any organization, activist or not, is self-perpetuation.

That, and $$$.

It's not beyond the pale to consider that a radical left-wing organization might be co-opted by people who are evenore radical than its organizers.

Jamie said...

neo on Brave New World

She points out - I think correctly - that Orwell gets quoted and referred to more often than Huxley, but Huxley's vision of the perversion of language - for instance, the making of "mother" and "father" into obscenities - is pretty damn spot on.

rehajm said...

Once they won legal rights, then spiked the football by attacking your opponents, that should have been the end of it. You can’t legislate acceptance.

I’m sorry you’re tired of seeing the same faces at the tea dance but trying to expand the dating pool by getting to very young kids is sick…

BUMBLE BEE said...

They set up their tent, now they gotta make payroll.

Heartless Aztec said...

"Smear the Queer" a favorite daily play football game for young males in the 1950's - 1980's where all would chase and tackle the guy - queer - with the football. Great rough and ready game in it's day. Guessing it's not played much anymore these days.

Paddy O said...

I'm curious if there is an example of an activist or charity organization that shut down after it achieved its goals. I can't think of any. The trouble is that a successful fight means having more and more people involved, increasingly paid and organized. How does a organization just cut all that loose? Then the very momentum and power of the organization turns new goals into national causes, when they weren't really causes before, all to keep the momentum.

Gunner said...

Every left wing organization eventually becomes just a way for lesbians to get rich.

Gusty Winds said...

It all entered a new phase of creepiness when the Gay Men's Choirs started singing about the COVID shots and recruiting the kids.

Aggie said...

"..."How the Gay-Rights Movement Lost Its Way..."

The Gay Rights Movement didn't 'lose its way', the Gay Rights Movement lost, period. They've been co-opted by a small, vocal cadre of psycho perverts who are using its carcass to advance the outrageous, predatory exploitation of children, purely for their gratification. There's a special 'thrill' that comes with having the legal authority conveyed to make the movement official, more powerful. Believe them when they say they want your kids, and they're taking them. Any society that allows this, deserves its fate. If you want a preview, see 'United Kingdoom'

Lucien said...

“Activists” can’t just quit and go home if they win on an issue, because activism is too much a part of their self image. If capital punishment were abolished, then the “Society to Abolish Capital Punishment” would have a party that night, and in the morning they’d be the “Society to Abolish Life Imprisonment without Parole.”

Leland said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Leland said...

i think Huxley, and Orwell too, are right on, because they accurately recognized what Marxism was and wrote a narrative to tell others. What we are seeing today is what survivors of communism saw in the 20th Century. We just didn’t see it first hand, so didn’t believe it was this bad.

Dave Begley said...

Exactly spot on. And trans rights has not become Dem party orthodoxy. Recall Nebraska state senator flipping out on the floor of the Unicameral screaming and chanting about trans people.

In my discussion with Dem state senator Tony Vargas who is running for Congress, the best he could do in defending child mutilation was to claim "the science is settled." When I told them they stopped trans surgery on kids in the UK his response was that we shouldn't be ruled by foreigners.

Same deal with the Green crowd. Once the air was clean, they had to declare carbon dioxide as a pollutant so that we could spend $1.3 trillion on net zero. Scam.

gilbar said...

the group has t' find
something else t' keep
them together..

progressives are like sharks. They HAVE TO keep moving (progressing), or they'll die.
When sodomy laws were ruled unconstitutional..
Then it was gay marriage..
When the Defense of Marriage act was defeated..
Then is was transism..
When transism is established.. what will be next?
will it be pedophilia? or incest? or polygamy?

When two (or 5) people "love each other".. WHO is society to say that they can't be together?

I was assuming that (adult) incest would be next; but it sure looks like the youth group is pulling hard.. Poly's might have Already slid it in

One thing is FOR SURE.. Progressives MUST FIGHT! for some thing (ANY THING!)

Sebastian said...

Like all advocacy groups, gay rights organizations display March of Dimes syndrome.

At the same time, though some gays oppose it, the trans cult is hardly a pivot; instead, it's a logical progression in the movement to undermine all traditional morality and institutions for the sake of total liberation. "Marriage equality" was just a way station. Gotta keep lubing that slippery slope.

wild chicken said...

Abigail Schrier wrote as much..total take over of our institutions, driven by wealthy TIMs with AGP

wild chicken said...

these "movement" rackets provide some nice sinecures for people who otherwise wouldn't make it. I'm jealous.

CJinPA said...

"Declare victory and go home" is never an option with movements. Gotta keep moving.

Feminists. Gays. Civil rights. All movements inevitably outlive their genuine purpose and need to construct new, more extreme ones to stay alive.

Always be asking, "What's next?" What's next after the trans issue, for LGBT activists. For feminist activists, what's next after men drop to 30% of college graduates? What's next for "Civil Rights" activists once whites are a minority?
You get goosebumps just thinking about it.

Bill Crawford said...

I think most anti-slavery groups are gone

gilbar said...

Dave Begley?
care to comment about Kristin Christensen, running for State Board of Education??
Kristin Christensen, she’s running for State Board of Education in Nebraska. She posted this photo of cakes with book decor to protest “banned books.”

Ambrose said...

I don’t know if the issues are all related. I grew up with many closeted, gay male friends who today as adults are out, well adjusted and happy. If they grew up today, they may have been castrated as children.

Rocco said...

Bill Crawford said...
"I think most anti-slavery groups are gone."

Which is a shame, since there are more enslaved people than ever. Except not in the West.

Joe Smith said...

Why do they need to have a 'cause' at all? Making the T group a part of LGBT has killed the brand and is dragging down the boring, regular gays. They are losing support (mine for one) because of it.

n.n said...

Under Respect For Marriage Act, you cannot discriminate for any sexual orientation: homosexuality, pedophilia, incestuous, sadomasochism, polygamy, etc. are all legal under Democratic law. #NoJudgment #NoLabels

Progress is an unqualified monotonic process, and in liberal philosophy is strictly divergent. That said, first they came for the babies. #HateLovesAbortion

n.n said...

The transgender spectrum pride parade has divided with its progression. Albinophobia was never a good look. The bisexuals were always compromised. The Levines were simply queers in women's clothing. NOW, the Mengele mania adds unwanted color and confusion to the Rainbow confederacy.

n.n said...

As individuals, homosexuals were merely on the transgender spectrum, a minority in the diversity of eight billion persons. As couplets, they could have advocated for civil unions for consenting adults. Instead, they forced selective change aided and abetted by progressive sects under their Pro-Choice ethical religion. Most people do not want to resume the social conservativism of the ancient cults.

Kakistocracy said...

It all started with the transgender community and supporters smearing anyone who questioned the safety of puberty blockers and cross sex hormones, or challenged the fairness of transgender women competing against biological women. So rather than engaging in good faith conversations about these non-political issues, they smeared those who asked questions as bigots and haters. The backlash was inevitable.

Richard said...

The most famous example of this is the March of Dimes. When a vaccine was developed for polio, their new cause became birth defects. They knew that they could continue on forever, since there was no way that birth defects could every be eliminated.

Jamie said...

I think most anti-slavery groups are gone

Which is too bad, since there's more slavery now, by the numbers, than there ever was in its supposed and appalling heyday.

Ne exeat said...

The perpetuation of these organizations would seems to require board of director approval of changes or extensions of the stated mission. WhileThe Sierra Club might be able to transition to a coal mining club, without board approval their actions could be considered ultra vires, and perhaps give some members a rightful claim against the mission change.

Sally327 said...

I don't think the lesbians are in favor of the big trans push. I'm not one (not that there is anything wrong with being one or not being one) but I get the impression that gay women do not appreciate being told that they are supposed to accept intimacy with pre-surgery trans women. But, of course, being women they are supposed to just shut up and "take it".

Big Mike said...

Richard is right, and in fact the whole thing has a name: March of Dimes syndrome. Not mentioned in this article is that initially some chapters of the March of Dimes actually fought against the polio vaccines, because what would there be to do once polio was no longer the public threat it had been. But then the March of Dimes pivoted to birth defects as its cause.

In the case of GLAAD, the fun of getting in the face of straights and the thrill of harassing devout Christians is just too pleasureable to pass up, so their new cause is -- has to be -- ever further to the left and ever more outrageous. Basically, its why we have the neverending culture wars.

MikeD said...

Early 60's college in SF I worked with and for gays, nobody hid it (SF after all) nor did they flaunt it. They've all passed now (none from AIDS) but I know they'd all be embarrassed with today's gay culture, especially the sicko parades.

Jersey Fled said...

“I'm curious if there is an example of an activist or charity organization that shut down after it achieved its goals.”

From what I understand, the March of Dimes did. After the Salk vaccine, they sold their trademark to a separate group who used it to fundraise for birth defects.

Jaq said...

Sometimes I think that the world is controlled by runaway zombie movements that long ago ceased to have a rational purpose.

Lazarus said...

In the 70s there was talk of "adhocracy," groups coming together to achieve specific goals and then dissolving. "Adhocracy" was supposed to be an alternative to bureaucracy. Or at least that's what I thought. Actually, "adhocracy" was bureaucrats coming together in teams to tackle specific problems and then reforming in teams to take on other problems. It's the "teams" approach that we heard so much about in recent years. The organizations and the bureaucracy were never going to melt away after achieving any specific goal.

Organizations don't give up after achieving their goals. Activism becomes a career and a lifestyle. Jobs and money and a sense of purpose are at stake. It wasn't always that way. Abolitionist organizations generally folded after emancipation. Some abolitionists turned their activism to other causes. That was grassroots adhocracy. Admit the problem was solved, dissolve the organization and move on to the next problem. Something similar happened after women got the vote. The National Womens' Party continued to exist, but most women went on to live their own private lives.

What changed isn't just the nature of activism, but also the emphasis on identity. It's no longer a matter of fixing things and moving on. You are always a part of the group -- that's who you are -- and the group always has a movement, even if most of its grievances have been redressed.

Michael K said...

It's the old "March of Dimes" story. Once polio went away they needed a new cause. They chose "birth defects" because that will never go away.

tcrosse said...

There's a certain subset of gays who want to use the movement to get even with all those people who were mean to them in high school. This task will never be finished.

West TX Intermediate Crude said...

Bill Crawford sai
"I think most anti-slavery groups are gone."

No, they have "evolved" into the various "civil rights" groups- BLM, NAACP, and the several lefty side branches such as Occupy, Antifa, Queers for this and that. Their initial goal, the elimination of slavery in the US, is 100% completed. The next goal, elimination of discrimination in education, employment, housing, was oversubscribed to the point that the governmental thumb is now on their side of the scale.
Instead of declaring victory and going home, now they are in the process of fundamentally transforming America, taking advantage of the guilt that many liberal whites feel despite never having owned a slave, never having discriminated against a person of color, and voting to give POC the advantages that they currently have and are squandering.
It will not end well.

Fritz said...

gilbar said...

progressives are like sharks. They HAVE TO keep moving (progressing), or they'll die.
When sodomy laws were ruled unconstitutional..
Then it was gay marriage..
When the Defense of Marriage act was defeated..
Then is was transism..
When transism is established.. what will be next?
will it be pedophilia? or incest? or polygamy?


Necrophilia, the very definition of a victimless crime.

Paddy O said...

Bill, oddly enough my denomination got started as an abolitionist contrast to the Methodist church. When the Civil War ended, some ministers returned but the denomination itself persisted with new causes, namely prohibition and anti secret society. Being so long ago we may not realize how many other organizations started with that as a cause

Dave Begley said...

Not nice. Not fair.

Dave Begley said...

I know who she is. She's another Dem Jacobin. Fully backed by the teachers' union. On the down ballot races, lots of Dems get elected if it is officially a non-partisan position.

Peachy said...

wiki is now taken over by the far left.
Gays Against Groomers is as follows:

An organization fighting back from inside the community against the sexualization, indoctrination and medicalization of children happening under the guise of “LGBTQIA+”

Dave Begley said...

Christensen won by 8k votes in the primary.

n.n said...

There are slaves in China. Over two million Muslim slaves. Divest. Protest. Never mind.

n.n said...

Political congruence ("=") is an equivocal and invasive principle.

Ralph L said...

Straighten up!

Scott Patton said...

Bob Boyd said... "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
― Eric Hoffer
And rackets are eternal

Gospace said...

Why couldn't they just accomplish gay marriage and live in peace?

Because... that was never the point. The point was to destroy the foundation of Western civilization. Leftists/socialists/Communists of all stripes in the USA supported same sex marriage. All groups funded by shadowy overseas money. But the actual Communist countries? Full of like, you know, Communists and leftists and socialists of all kinds? That don't have nor allow SSM or civil unions for same sex couples. Almost as if they know it's destructive of civilization.

Gospace said...

It is played. At least as late as 2012 when my youngest graduated HS.

Gospace said...

Now if they could only get rid of slavery in Sharialand and Africa and India...

PM said...

The working man nails it.

tim maguire said...

Just another example of how interest groups will never declare victory and go home. Not even total victory will make them happy. They just find another issue to shout about. Because the cause isn’t the cause, the movement is the cause.

tim maguire said...

I don’t know what polling reveals, but plenty of gays are not cool with their movement being hijacked by the gender-nutters. Some are starting to shorten the alphabet soup back to LGB, as it should always have been.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Make a difference vs. be the difference becomes the goal. I worked with many gays that were as 'normal' as Ward Cleaver. The consensus there was that trannies were confused gays who enjoyed the Queen Limelight attention. It was how they 'fit in'.