…Gay marriage is backed by around 70 percent of Americans, and discrimination against gay men, lesbians and transgender people is opposed by 80 percent. As civil rights victories go, it doesn’t get more decisive or comprehensive than this.
But a funny thing happened in the wake of these triumphs. Far from celebrating victory, defending the gains and staying vigilant…gay and lesbian rights groups did the opposite. Swayed by the broader liberal shift to the social justice left, they radicalized.
“Queer” was a way of summing up the new regime, a clear sign that this really was a different movement from the gay, lesbian and transgender civil rights movement of the past.
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As I watched all this radical change, I wondered if I was just another old fart, shaking my fist at the sky, like every older generation known to man.
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But this new ideology, I believed, was different. Like many gays and lesbians — and a majority of everybody else — I simply didn’t buy it.
This is an excerpt. Follow this link to read reactions in the New York Times to Andrew Sullivan’s essay: Have Gay Rights Gone Too Far, or Not Far Enough?
