Equal rights for homosexuals? Not quite there, but getting there fast, as Time’s Michael Kinsley points out in his piece entitled “The Quiet Gay Revolution“.

When President Clinton implemented “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, I was amongst those who thought it would never work; that there were way, too many homophobes in our military, which has always been a cross-section of our society, to have any prayer of working. Surprisingly, while there were obvious “bumps” in the road initially, the military quickly adapted to the new policy — AT the lower ranks. Of course, to this very day the upper ranks are still too quick but maybe not as quick as they were in the earlier days of DADT to end the military careers of important, and highly capable troops at the first sign of a “DADT slip up”, so it is logical to end the DADT policy NOW.

From the referenced Time article:

“… On no issue is history moving faster than on “gay rights”–an already antiquated term for full and equal participation and acceptance of gay men and women in American life. The work is not finished, of course, but what took black Americans more than a century, gays have accomplished in two or three decades (thanks in no small part to blacks, who designed the template for this kind of social revolution). We still argue about it, but the whole spectrum of debate has moved left. A right-wing thug like Tom DeLay or Newt Gingrich probably has more advanced views about homosexuals than dainty liberals of the past century like Adlai Stevenson or Hubert Humphrey. And whatever the actual views, public expressions of overt homophobia are now unacceptable from any national politician.

The debate of 14 years ago about gays in the military seems almost quaint. Kids grow up today with gay friends, gay parents, gay parents of friends and gay friends of parents. If only blacks and whites were as thoroughly mixed together in society as gays and straights are. Kids are also exposed constantly to an entertainment culture in which gays are not merely accepted but in some ways dominant. You rarely see a reality show without a gay cast member, while Rosie O’Donnell is a coveted free agent and Ellen DeGeneres is America’s sweetheart. The notion that gays must be segregated out of the military for the sake of our national security must strike Americans younger than, say, 40 as simply weird, just as we of the previous generation find the rules of racial segregation weird. (O.K., run that by me again: they needed separate drinking fountains because … why?)

For 14 years the GOP has stood still as history has gone charging past. In last week’s CNN-sponsored debate, every Republican presidential candidate said he supports “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” the arch compromise of 1993. This ridiculous policy allows servicemen and -women to be gay in some existential sense but tosses them out if they talk about it or do anything about it. Most congressional Republicans voted for “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” but the party platform for the 1996 presidential election retreated from it: “We oppose Bill Clinton’s assault on the culture and traditions of the armed forces, especially his attempt to lift the ban on homosexuals in the military. We affirm that homosexuality is incompatible with military service.” This last formulation, repeated in the GOP platforms of 2000 and 2004, is especially head in the sand. They can “affirm” anything they want, but homosexuality is obviously not incompatible with military service. There have always been gays in the military. The question is what conditions they serve under. …”

The title of the Time article alone suggests this was a “quiet revolution”, but that’s not quite the truth at all. It was not so very long ago when the gay rights rallies around America were beginning to look pretty grotesque, if you remember. They were beginning to resemble R-rated clown shows, not suitable for the eyes of young children with a few too many gay men in dresses and loud makeup making out with each other in their offensive parades. Even those who agreed with the general goal of the GLBT community to be treated not as “special” Citizens, but as EQUAL Citizens were being quite offended by the visuals being presented at these little get-togethers. The result was a blanket punishment for the community as a whole at the polls in many states when the gay marriage initiatives were being presented to the voters.

This could have easily set the gay rights movement back decades if it weren’t for the fact the more mainstream members within the GLBT community; the vast majority of them in other words; were EQUALLY angered and offended by the extremists who attempted to paint themselves as the “face” of the gay rights movement every time a microphone and camera were anywhere in the vicinity. I personally know many homosexual Americans (we all do, of course), most of whom would back me up on that claim, by the way.

So, what happened? How did the GLBT community rebound to make such exponential advances in the gay rights arena after such tremendous setbacks?

Friends of mine within the community have told me they simply policed themselves. Those who were the root cause of the earlier setbacks of the equality movement were made to feel less than welcomed to show their faces at these events if they were going to insist upon presenting themselves in such a vile and adolescent manner. These clowns soon found themselves being treated as “outsiders” within their own community and learned soon enough they were FAR outnumbered by those who COMPLETELY SHARED the same basic American family values with the their hetrosexual American counterparts.

These crossdressing clowns (the “fringe” minority) learned the hard way that their boorish, lewd, outrageous, public behavior was being shunned, by and large, by homosexual America who didn’t wish for THEIR children to be exposed to a bunch of “boisterous drag queens in the streets” either (fairly close to a direct quote from a dear lesbian friend of mine, by the way). Not only did the average homosexual see the behavior of these clowns as presenting a major obstacle to their admirable agenda, they largely disapproved of such public displays of behavior… PERIOD. They did not wish to be associated with such behavior being displayed in broad daylight, before the eyes of young Americans… PERIOD.

And while there is still great progress yet to be made in this arena, this has been the “secret” to the rapid advancement of equality for ALL Americans regardless of sexual preferences and regardless of whom they find themselves gravitating toward spending a significant portion of their lives with. And it should come as no surprise that as a result, hetrosexual America is beginning to see the only difference between them and their homosexual neighbors is with whom they are naturally driven to share their love, compassion, companionship, and lives with. The gender of one’s significant other has GOT to be one of the most insignificant facts I’ve ever seen brought up for consideration and debate…

And that is that.

GTL’s hand-picked favorite blogger reactions, thanks in part to MemeOrandum: Andrew Sullivan (The Daily Dish); Kevin Drum (The Washington Monthly); Matthew O’Keefe (Papamoka Straight Talk); Comments From Left Field; The Carpetbagger Report; Drudge Retort (adult language)

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