Inayet Hadi Inayet Hadi Professor Bryan P AD 5271 Sec.

001 Final Written Assignment Small Wins Normalizing Homosexuality in the United States Small Wins Carl E. Weicks defines smalls wins as a concrete, complete, implemented outcome of moderate importance furthermore, Small wins are controllable

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opportunities that produce visible results (p. 43). For small wins to become successful the bounds of rationality of people must not exceed an acceptable level (p. 45). An acceptable level of bounded rationality is when other groups are not aroused enough to actively take counter action. One characteristic of a small wins is that A small win reduces importance (this is no big deal) to the opposing side (p. 46). Likewise, Weicks asserts that The confidence that flows from a pursuit of small wins frequently enacts environments in which the original problem becomes less severe and the next improvement more clear (p. 47). The original problem that homosexuals faced prior to the 1969 Stonewall Riot was both physical and psychological abuse. The Stonewall Riots is considered as the beginning of the gay civil rights movement (Drescher, n.d., slide 11) fighting to remove the acceptance of physical and psychological abuse towards homosexual community. The small wins theory will be used to help explain the normalization of homosexuality in the United States. The term homosexual refers to all those individuals who are not pure heterosexuals. There will also be an attempt to make sense of why only a partial normalization of homosexuality has occurred in the United States. The

Inayet Hadi normalization of homosexuality is the attempt by homosexuals to use all means to

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legitimize and equalize their rights with heterosexuals. The homosexual community has used many small wins to advance their agenda in order to be seen as equal before the law and society. Currently, being equal before the law means that homosexuals can engage in any legal activity that heterosexuals can (i.e. adoptions, marriage, spousal rights, and etc). Many Small Wins for Homosexuals The Stonewall Riot was the first large scale homosexuals rioting that lasted for four nights. The riots were set off after a known homosexual bar was raided by the New York Police Department (NYPD) (The New York Times, 1969, para. 1). The riot, according to NYPD was caused by homosexuals resisting arrest and throwing objects at the police officers who were implementing a law. On the positive lasting note, the riot demonstrated to the rest of the society that homosexuals were not going take it anymore. Specifically, what the homosexuals were not going to take was the different treatment meted out to them by the NYPD. The riots created a lasting moderate image in the wider public psyche that homosexuality existed on a large scale, and that homosexuality could not be eliminated with police action alone. Four years after the Stonewall Riot, in 1973, homosexuals succeeded in convincing the American Psychiatry Association [APA] to remove the term homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. (In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders [DSMPD]) (Oz, 2003, par. 3). The result of removing homosexuality from being a mental disorder steadily contributed to homosexuality becoming normalized.

Inayet Hadi Currently, homosexuality has been accepted in the popular image due to

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mainstream movies and cable/primetime television shows depicting homosexuality in a positive light. From anecdotal perspective, both males and females homosexuals have been publically observed in the city of Boulder and the city of Denver. The homosexuals were holding hands and kissing each other in public without any sort of repercussion that would have occurred prior to 1969. Ellen DeGeneres, a popular talk show host came out of the closet late in the 1990s. DeGeneres coming out of the closet was made a big deal, afterwards she lost her television talk show, but a decade later, its not a big deal that she is a homosexual, in fact, DeGeneres currently has a show where she openly professes her homosexuality. There are also other television shows that have homosexual characters as central to the show. Due to the homosexuals positive image on television, most of the young Americans being born today might view homosexuality in the near future as being completely normal. To sum up, the partial normalization of the homosexual lifestyle in the United States has become a reality through the use of many small wins. The 1969 Stonewall Riots gave a public voice to the homosexual movement present in the US. As a consequence of the riot, other homosexuals in different part of the United States began to organize themselves in all aspect of American society, from starting legal defense leagues, to publishing newspapers, to creating social organizations, and etc (Dean, 2007, p. 370). Four years after the 1969 Stonewall Riots, in 1972 the Task Force on Gay Liberation successfully lobbied the Library of Congress to remove homosexuality from the abnormal sexual relations category and have homosexuality be part of the normal

Inayet Hadi sexual relations category (Weick, 1984, p. 42). Then during the late 1980s and the

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1990s Hollywood started to produce movies that portrayed homosexuals in similar roles as heterosexuals except that they were homosexuals (Dean, 2007, p. 369). These many small wins over the decades by the homosexual community has partially contributed to the normalization of homosexuality in the United States society. However, those small wins have not translated into their full acceptance into U.S. society. For example, homosexuals in most states cannot get a marriage certificate or adopt orphaned children. Homosexuals Big Loss Where homosexuals have not succeeded is the right to have a legally binding marriage, adopt orphaned children, or have similar rights given to heterosexual spouses. One of many reasons why homosexuals have been successful in getting the public to accept some small wins and not others has to do with the level of arousal that those rights generate. Right now, the homosexual community as opposed to wanting to be allowed to live with each other in the privacy of their homes, instead want the government to legitimize their relationships in terms of providing marriage certificates, being allowed to adopt orphaned children, and to have spousal rights. Homosexuals desires to be completely legitimized by the government have apparently been too much for the opponents of homosexuality who view homosexuality through the prism of religion (Edwards, 2007, p. 249). Furthermore, homosexuals want to have the ability to adopt children that are not their own. This request by the homosexual community to adopt orphaned children is arousing the hostility levels of those who consider themselves to be practicing and acting their Christian faith.

Inayet Hadi Weick (1984) stresses that small win cannot take place if the opposition to a small win is highly aroused. This arousal gives the opposition an effective way to

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mobilize their constituency to oppose the small win (p. 41). Since the Stonewall Riots of 1969, the public has accepted the right of homosexuals to live their lives within a framework that allows them to engage in their homosexual lifestyle with great latitude. For instance, homosexuals can attend gay bars, publically hold and show affection to their mates, and freely advocate for their interest without the fear of being jailed or purposely harassed by the government. However, the rights to marriage and adoption which is being demanded by homosexuals is causing the religious heterosexuals to exceed the limits of bounded rationality of what they are willing to tolerate (Weick, 1984, p. 40). A small win can turn into a big loss if the opposition becomes alerted to the activities of the homosexuals and their agenda. For example, where a small win turned into a big loss for the homosexual community was the belief by homosexuals that the society here in the US was ready to accept their legal right to adopt orphaned children and to get married. These demands were actively and successfully opposed by groups and individuals who had become highly aroused because of their religious beliefs that opposes the idea of homosexuals getting married or homosexuals adopting children. Normalizing Homosexuals Marriage & Adoption In conclusion, one suggestion that can be offered to the homosexual community is to advocate for civil unions, and to advocate that homosexuals have an equal opportunity to take custody of their biological children after a divorce. Wanting to have civil unions as opposed to marriage might lower the arousal levels of those individuals who are

Inayet Hadi opposed to homosexual marriage based on religious preference. In the long-term, civil

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unions will become equalized to the status of marriage, except that marriage will be a religious ceremony, and civil unions will be filling out and signing a government form. Similarly, the homosexual community can advocate for the right of homosexual parents to take custody of their children when proceeding with a divorce. These two small wins both achieve the same end, the right to get married and the right to adopt children, but both approaches uses a method that lowers the arousal levels of groups who oppose homosexuals right to get married or adopt children.

Inayet Hadi Works Referenced Dean, J. J. (2007). Gays and Queers: From the Centering to the Decentering of Homosexuality in American Films. Sexualities, 10(3), 363-386. Drescher, J. (n.d.) Ethical Issues in Sexual Conversion (Reparative) Therapies [PowerPoint Slides]. Edwards, J. (2007). Marriage is scared: The religious rights arguments against gay marriage in Australia. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 9(3), 247-261. Oz, L. (2003, December). Homosexuality Normalized. Retrieved from

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http://www.albatrus.org/english/lien_of_oz/homosexuality/homosexuality_normal ised.htm The New York Times. (1969, June 30). Police Again Rout Village Youths. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/ eresources/]exhibitions/sw25/case1.html. Weick, K. E. (1984). Small Wins: Redefining the Scale of Social Problems. American Psychologist, 39(1), 40-49.