This week in class we discussed the emergence of the gay marriage campaign in recent years, and reasons for the timing of its appearance. In the past century american society has experienced the civil rights movement, suffrage, and now campaigns for gay marriage. Are they linked or is their proximity coincidental? Linking the emergence of the gay marriage movement with the preceding civil rights movement may appear a stretch, however, I believe history shows a greater likelihood of rights movements emerging following recent significant changes.
In Europe, the fall of the Roman Empire was followed by a long, largely stagnant dark age for human progress, during which the catholic church's dogma held full control. However, following the reformation: the protestant break from the catholic church, the scientific revolution quickly followed. It is no coincidence that the move to scientific reasoning as the dominant worldview closely followed the breaking of the catholic church's control. Questioning of the catholic church quickly led to questioning of the church as a whole, and so the reformation set the stage rather quickly for the scientific revolution. When one significant change is achieved, it would appear the changed environment opens the scope of people's views to other potential change. A period of rapid change therefore follows. This pattern was reflected in England's fear following the success of the French revolution that such a revolution would occur in their own country. The fear stemmed from worry of change in France opening England's minds to change in their own nation.
Within the USA the suffrage movement and civil rights movement also emerged in close proximity with one another. As soon as the unequal status of one group was questioned, this opened people up to questioning the unequal status of another group, though whether suffrage preceded or followed the civil rights movement I am unsure of. The past century has undergone a dense number of changes ranging from women's rights, to African American rights, and now campaigns for the rights of gays to marry. It would only seem likely that these changes are following the same pattern as others have done: periods of slow change intermingled with periodic shorter ones of rapid change. The gay marriage campaign, I believe, was sparked by the significant progress achieved by the civil rights movement. Change, it would seem, it somewhat viral, and for the good or the better, follows on from itself quickly .
