I saw a meme on social media a few days ago that caused a bit of immediate reflection. The meme highlighted the fact that just 10 years ago, only six states had “legalized” same-sex marriage.
Six. Out of 50. A whopping 12 percent.
Ten years ago isn’t that long ago. At all.
It reminded me that 10 years ago there was a legitimate debate on whether the idea of two people of the same sex getting married was a good idea. And whether we as a society should radically change the definition of the institution of marriage.
Ten years ago.
Then I wondered, if we ventured back in time, say to 10 years ago, would we have guessed we’d be where we are today?
Would anyone have?
In 10 years, we’ve gone from debating whether two dudes should be allowed to get married to debating whether boys should be allowed to play girls’ sports. About whether a girl should have to wear a bikini top at the local pool because she “identifies” as a boy. About whether grown men should be dressed up like women dancing like strippers for dollar bills in front of kids. About public schools and libraries hosting drag queen story hour events. About whether a preschool student should be told they can choose to be a boy, a girl, both, neither or something else. About whether a book containing adult sexual content according to Google belongs in a school library. About whether a district could keep secret from parents that little Jimmy actually goes by little Jenny at school.
Would anyone have believed that?
Ten years ago, would you have thought that of 58 Democrats in the Iowa legislature, not a single one would vote for a bill proclaiming a biological boy cannot play female sports?
Would anyone have thought that?
Any serious person?
Would we have thought that there would be college professors and media outlets proclaiming that pedophiles are actually just “minor-attracted people” who are born that way and there is nothing wrong with their attraction so long as they do not act upon it?
Of course not.
It would have been nearly unanimous. I would guess 90-95 percent of American adults would have never envisioned we’d be where we are today just 10 years ago.
Yet here we are.
Having these debates.
Why?
Because we too easily gave up on that one from 10 years ago.
The slippery slope, it turns out, is actually pretty slippery. And the slope is pretty steep.
We’re only picking up the pace as we scurry toward the bottom.
Grown men who believe they are women using a bathroom stall next to a 6-year-old little girl is not a sign of progress. It isn’t being on the right side of history.
It is a consequence of conservatives giving up and throwing in the towel on an issue they never should have given up or thrown the towel in on.
But we did. And because we did, we’re here now.
It is not enough to figure out how we stop this slide. We must figure out a way and a strategy to turn around and begin to head back in the right direction.
If we don’t, who knows what we’ll be debating in another 10 years.
