Homophobic panic and the marriage “Tipping Point.”

April 17, 2009 by Dan Hooper.

I guess I am not through with Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. I may even have to buy the book and read it.  For on his own site, Gladwell mentions something that probably agitates homophobes and political conservatives.  Summarizing one chapter which covers a mysterious copy-cat behavior of teen suicide in Micronesia 30-40 years ago, Gladwell says,

“I assure you that after you read about what happened in Micronesia you’ll be convinced that behavior can be transmitted from one person to another as easily a the flue or the measles can.”

Those who think homosexuals are horrible role models, shouldn’t be foster or adoptive parents, ought to be denied employment equality, and cannot possibly be Christian pastors, would be on this same page, wouldn’t they?  Homosexuality is not innate, not inborn, they argue, but is a learned behavior, a matter of choice, and therefore of making the wrong choice.  And if enough foolish individuals make that wrong choice, society will reach a homosexual tipping point and there won’t be any next generation and the human race will have gone to hell in a handbasket.

As I mentioned yesterday, Brian Montopoli thinks we may be at a “tipping point,” even though the poll numbers in America suggest that a majority of Americans are opposed to same-gender marriage. But then he goes on:  

“Those numbers, however, have been moving, and not in the direction gay marriage opponents might like. In 2004, just 22 percent supported gay marriage – which means that there has been a nine-point increase in five years. And even the most optimistic gay marriage advocate would have been hard pressed, 15 years ago, to predict that 33 percent of Americans would be backing gay marriage by 2009.  

“In fact, the demographics suggest that support for gay marriage will only increase: Opposition comes largely from those 65 and older, just 18 percent of whom support gay marriage. Younger people – those 18 to 45 – are far more supportive, with 41 percent backing allowing same sex couples to marry. 

“Which brings us back to our original question: Have we reached a tipping point in the debate over gay marriage?”

But roughly half the states in America have laws or constitutional amendments to make same-sex marriage an impossibility.  As to the connection between “tipping point” thinking and homophobic fears, I went to Google to check it out.  I found 49,500 hits on gay marriage + tipping point.  It would take a month of Mondays to comb through them. Many of them are found on pro-LGBT sites.  Then this:  

“Bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell to address the ‘tipping point’ of marriage equality at Creating Change, the nation’s premier lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizing conference. Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, will speak at the Oakland-based conference on Nov. 9.”

Well, where’ve I been? That was posted in November 2005! Gladwell is looking for non-medical signs of tipping points in social change. That’s the core of his research. No wonder!

It is hard to be objective, because either you’re in favor of, or you are terrified that the homosexual activists are trying to tip things right now. Because behavior can be tipped.

But the real issue, of course, is whether homosexuality can suddenly be “caught” like a medical epidemic. What is beginning to tip in America is tolerance, not homosexuality. There is no evidence that more than 5-10% of the population (any population, any nation, any era) is homosexual.

Homophobic panic, that young children are being “taught” homosexuality, is highly manipulative, and reminds me of the so-called Dopeler Effect:  that stupid ideas fired at you rapidly seem more intelligent than they really are.

— Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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