From Tolerance to Equality: How Elites Brought America to Same-Sex Marriage

by Darel E. Paul

Over the last twenty-five years, a dramatic transformation in the American public’s view of homosexuality has occurred, symbolized best by the movement of same-sex marriage from the position of a fringe few to the pinnacle of morality and a cornerstone of establishment thought. From Tolerance to Equality explores how this seismic shift of social perspective occurred and why it was led by the country’s educational and financial elite. Rejecting claims of a commitment to toleration or a heightened capacity for moral sympathy, author Darel E. Paul argues that American elites use opinion on homosexuality as a mark of social distinction and thus as a tool for accumulating cultural authority and political power.

Paul traces this process through its cultural pathways as first professionals and, later, corporate managers took up the cause. He marshals original data analysis and chapters on social class and the family, the ideology of diversity, and the waning status of religious belief and authority to explore the factors behind the cultural changes he charts. Paul demonstrates the high stakes for same-sex marriage’s mostly secular proponents and mostly religious opponents—and explains how so many came to fight so vigorously on an issue that directly affects so few. In the end, From Tolerance to Equality is far more than an explanation of gay equality and same-sex marriage. It is a road map to the emerging American political and cultural landscape.

Genres: Politics, American History, Sociology, Cultural, Nonfiction

230 pages, Hardcover

Published March 1, 2018

Reviews

[Mansoor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent study, although slightly dry.
...

طبقه‌ی متوسط و طبقه‌ی کارگر، در قیاس با طبقه‌ی بالای جامعه، همیشه نگاه منفی‌تری به مسئله‌ی همجنس‌خواهی دارند

نظر غالب این است که طبقه‌ی بالا از عادی‌سازی روابط همجنس‌خواهانه و ازدواج همجنس‌خواهان حمایت می‌کنند، چون لیبرالند. ولی بر اساس داده‌های موجود، دقیق‌ترش این است که بگوییم لیبرال‌ها از عادی‌سازی و ازدواج همجنس‌خواهان حمایت می‌کنند، چون از طبقه‌ی بالا هستند

نظرسنجی جی‌اس‌اس از سال 2006 از پاسخ‌دهندگانش هم سوالی درباره‌ی اخلاقی‌بودن روابط جنسی همجنس‌خواهانه می‌پرسید و هم سوالی درباره‌ی ازدواج همجنس‌خواهان. داده‌های جمع‌آوری‌شده از پنج نظرسنجی بین سال‌های 2006 و 2014 نشان می‌دهد که اکثریت عظیم آمریکایی‌ها (86%) در یکی از این دو دسته جا می‌گیرند: تایید-پذیرش یا مخالفت-رد. می‌توانیم مطلب را این‌طور تفسیر کنیم که تقریبا تمام آمریکایی‌ها دلشان می‌خواهد نظرات شخصی‌شان در باب روابط جنسی همجنس‌خواهانه در قانون ازدواج دخیل باشد

بی‌شک پشت تبلیغ برای هر ایدئولوژی‌ای رگه‌ای از منافع شخصی پنهان است. در دهه‌های 1960 و 1970، تا حدی از ترس شورش سیاهان بود که طبقه‌ی بالای مدیریتی از سیاست تبعیض مثبت حمایت می‌کردند. نیتشان این بود که با برکشیدن گروهی از سیاهان به طبقه‌ی بالای مدیریتی بر سرخوردگی‌ای غلبه کنند که تصور می‌شد منشا ناآرامی‌های شهری‌ است. هم سیاست تبعیض مثبت و هم سیاست تکثرآفرینی فرصت‌های شغلی جدیدی در رده‌ی مدیریتی، به ویژه برای زنان، ایجاد کرد. از شواهد برمی‌آید که زنان سفید در واقع بیش از هر گروه دیگری از این سیاست‌ها سود برده‌اند

[Robert Lowry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, let’s leave aside the staggering irony of a tenured professor at Williams complaining about ”the elites” and go to the text. This work suffers from the same deficiencies as so many texts from the right. First, is the assumption that there is general consensus at any point in history that procreation is the moral point of marriage. Well this is certainly one of additional reasons for marriage, it is not the only one. There are mini fundamentally a moral reasons marriage has historically been promoted. Political expediency, maintenance of power, and in some communities were plural marriage was and is practiced, preservation of gender roles. Second, text conflates the moral argument in favor of equality with the liberal argument for radical individualism. This argument is nonsensical are absent evidence beyond the author’s assumptions. There are many LGBTQ Americans who are married and maintain a Paleo-conservative worldview. Finally, the assumption that past moral opprobrium is justification for contemporary political or social exclusion relies upon a faulty assumption that morality is static.

Well there is certainly truth to the argument that intellectual, business, and professional leaders helped move the needle on the public policy debate concerning marriage equality, there is simply no merit to the standard right wing “the elites forced this on us” argument.

[Mike Fendrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good concluding arguments. The elites are no longer the vanguard conducting the Sexual Revolution, the revolution is conducting them. As the seams burst on the progressive, secular millennial kingdom and they have to contend with new liberation's that contradict the agenda, where do you turn. Pandora's box is not only open, it has been blown to smithereens. So where is our hope? “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40: 8 ESV).

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sobering, comprehensive account of the sea change in opinion on same-sex marriage and sexual identity. Both conservatives and liberals have much to glean from Paul’s rigorous research.

[Brooklynn Felix · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had this book in my cart for so long - I finally made the purchase and am so glad I did. I could not recommend this book more and would love for the author to write a new, updated book on the same topic.