Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Why hasn't there be more of a backlash to the Supreme Court Ruling on Gay Marriage?
Generally, Supreme Court rulings on big divisive issues trigger backlashes. For example, many people feel that Roe V. Wade triggered a big backlash by taking a divisive issues out of the hands of elected state legislatures and instead was settled by unelected Federal judges in Washington.
Similar backlashes were seen on controversial rulings on prayer in school, affirmative action, desegregation, etc.
By contrast, the public has basically shrugged on federal judges mandating gay marriage rights. Even conservative activists seem to have moved on. No talk of litmus tests for Federal Judges or attempts at Constitutional amendments. Republican candidates don't even talk about it.
It would be in most others Western countries, but the citizens of the US became really obedient, and tend to agree/suppress their feelings about many inconveniences or weird government rules imposed
on them.
I would say because the only controversy was forcing the use of the word "married" instead of "domestic partner" in English. And while some states still voted against changing the dictionary the votes were getting closer so that is was only a matter of time.
The other gains like the federal government being able to petition a foreigner as a same sex spouse immigrant or for a soldier to receive familial benefits would have been extended to domestic partners if the court case was lost in any matter
Why hasn't there be more of a backlash to the Supreme Court Ruling on Gay Marriage?
Generally, Supreme Court rulings on big divisive issues trigger backlashes. For example, many people feel that Roe V. Wade triggered a big backlash by taking a divisive issues out of the hands of elected state legislatures and instead was settled by unelected Federal judges in Washington.
Similar backlashes were seen on controversial rulings on prayer in school, affirmative action, desegregation, etc.
By contrast, the public has basically shrugged on federal judges mandating gay marriage rights. Even conservative activists seem to have moved on. No talk of litmus tests for Federal Judges or attempts at Constitutional amendments. Republican candidates don't even talk about it.
Your premise is wrong. Gay marriage is not all that controversial. Most people have gay relatives and friends and are no longer against it. The younger millennial generation widely accepts it. So there is your reason. The views of most people have changed, and the Supreme Court has now followed suit.
I would suggest with the exception of more religious based pockets within the conservative side of this debate, conservatives as a whole have basically moved on. A surprising number of same sex couples are actually conservatives themselves (I know several and I'd argue I have a small sample). It's a non-issue, really. People should be able to marry whomever they choose. More to the heart of the matter, many conservatives believe the state shouldn't even be in the marriage business to begin with.
Why hasn't there be more of a backlash to the Supreme Court Ruling on Gay Marriage?
Generally, Supreme Court rulings on big divisive issues trigger backlashes. For example, many people feel that Roe V. Wade triggered a big backlash by taking a divisive issues out of the hands of elected state legislatures and instead was settled by unelected Federal judges in Washington.
Similar backlashes were seen on controversial rulings on prayer in school, affirmative action, desegregation, etc.
By contrast, the public has basically shrugged on federal judges mandating gay marriage rights. Even conservative activists seem to have moved on. No talk of litmus tests for Federal Judges or attempts at Constitutional amendments. Republican candidates don't even talk about it.
There wasn't any particular "backlash" to the ruling of those other issues either.
Not to the ruling itself.
Where there was backlash, it was to the subsequent enforcement legislation and execution actions when they directly affected anyone.
Women who didn't want abortions were not forced to get them. School children did not come home from school distraught that they missed the Lord's Prayer.
There was more backlash from affirmative action and de-segregation only when it directly affected people who opposed it.
For instance, in Southern communities where schools were segregated by fiat rather than by geography (the specific point of Brown v Topeka--the little Brown girl was forced by segregation to go to a black school much farther away from her home than the white school), there was annoyance that most people got over relatively quickly. Where it involved white kids being bused out of their neighborhoods, there was backlash.
In those cases, it was the lower-level functionaries who had to implement the rulings who caught the backlash.
There's no backlash from conservatives because it's not the big issue to us that liberals insist it is.
Liberals like to campaign on these issues that stir up their masses by insisting that conservatives believe this or that. They say we want to be in your bedroom and that we hate gays. It's just not true and now you see the proof, no outrage.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
