FROM WIRED
How Pop Culture Changed the Face of the Same-Sex Marriage Debate
- 06.27.13
- 6:30 AM
Image courtesy GLAAD
Things were different in 2008, the year Proposition 8 passed in California and limited the definition of marriage to a man and a woman. Back then there was no Glee, we didn’t know what a Modern Familywas, and there was no Renly Baratheon on Game of Thrones (or an openly gay version of him in the George R. R. Martin novels). Back in 1996, when the Defense of Marriage Act passed, there were even fewer images of gay and lesbian characters in mainstream media and Batwoman had yet to come out of the closet. Now it’s 2013, and yesterday’s Supreme Court decisions about DOMA and Prop 8 have paved new roads for same-sex marriage–roads that were both measured by and shaped by the positive gay characters that began to emerge in mainstream media throughout the last several decades.
On the surface it may seem like too much of a logical jump to say that a person would change their views on a specific issue simply because a TV show endorsed it, but consider this: Back in 2008—clearly a big year for LGBT rights—the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and a research team from Harris Interactive did a survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults 18 and older and found that two in 10 of them had changed their views of gays and lesbians in the previous five years to a more favorable one.
Their reasons? Some said it was because they knew a gay person, some said news programs shifted their views, others noted that family or friends had persuaded them. Also, 34 percent said their views were influenced by seeing gay or lesbian characters on TV, and 29 percent said it was by a gay or lesbian character on film. Tinseltown has been streaming LGBT characters into American homes for decades, and even though they may not have directly influenced the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act and make a ruling essentially allowing gay marriage to resume in California, they’ve at least played a part. The arc of the moral universe may be long, and it bends towards the multiplex.
And it’s not like no one saw this coming. Believe it or not, back when Congress passed DOMA in 1996, same-sex marriage wasn’t legal anywhere in the United States–or the world. The law was a preemptive measure, designed to fend off a rising tide of support for gay rights before it lifted marriage equality to legal status, an attempt by Congress to “remedy a rift in society caused by the evolution of the lesbian and gay narrative into a story of same-sex relationships that resemble traditional marriage,” Charles J. Butler wrote in 1998 in an article in the NYU Law Review about the influence of cultural shifts on same-sex marriage. “By enacting DOMA, Congress took the unusual step of legislating a domestic relations issue through its power … using narratives to counter the story of same-sex marriage and to assuage society’s anxieties regarding homosexuality, marriage, and family.”
In his article, Butler also cited TV shows like Friends and Roseanne, both of which had gay characters and couples, as influential in the conversation about same-sex marriage. Of course, one of the earliest and most visible representatives of the LGBT community was Ellen DeGeneres, who famously came out on her television show Ellen in 1997 only to see her show canceled shortly thereafter. She later reemerged in the early aughts as everyone’s favorite Lesbian Next Door – right down to her marriage to Arrested Development actress Portia De Rossi, which happened in 2008, just before California’s Proposition 8 put an halt to same-sex marriages in the state. “It’s a supremely wonderful day for equality. Prop 8 is over, and so is DOMA,” DeGeneres tweeted Wednesday. “Congratulations everyone. And I mean everyone.”
And while DeGeneres may be the most iconic gay character to break ground on television, she wasn’t alone. Three years before she came out on Ellen, another ABC featured an openly gay character named Rickie Vasquez. Part of the cast on the short-lived 1994 show My So-Called Life–which though taken from us too soon, now lives on via Hulu–Vasquez was one of the first examples of an openly gay teen on American television.
“Rickie Vasquez was the first gay person that they knew and because of the light he shed on the issue, I think people walked into voting booths; I think people took up the cause of LGBT rights,” Wilson Cruz, the actor who played Vasquez and is now a GLAAD spokesperson, told Wired. “It’s probably hard to measure the effects of it, but I know for many people the only LGBT people that they know are people that they meet on their television screens or at the movie theater.”
In more recent years there have been more storylines involving gay people on TV shows like Glee andWill & Grace, and committed gay couples on shows like Modern Family and Grey’s Anatomy. (There are even political-for-different-reasons gay characters like Renly Baratheon on Game of Thrones, and nearly every vampire on True Blood provides an allegory for an LGBT rights issue.) “If we played even the tiniest role in helping to defeat Prop 8 and giving all gay people the equal rights they deserve, then I’m a happy man,” Modern Family co-creator Steve Levitan told The Wrap back in March.
And chances are, he has reason to be proud. In a poll published by The Hollywood Reporter late last year, 27 perecent of respondents said gay TV shows like Glee and Modern Family pushed them to be more pro-gay marriage, while only 2 percent said the shows made them more anti-same-sex marriage. The shows were even found to have a pro gay-marriage influence on those who claimed to be Mitt Romney voters in the weeks leading up to the 2012 election.
Want more proof pop culture influences the political discourse? Ask the vice president. Back in May 2012, Joe Biden was on Meet the Press and was asked about the possibility of the President Barack Obama administration backing same-sex marriage (this was just days before the president actuallycame out in support of marriage equality). He replied: “I take a look at when things really begin to change, is when the social culture changes. I think Will and Grace probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody’s ever done so far. And I think–people fear that which is different. Now they’re beginning to understand.” His reference point may have been a little dated—at that point NBC’s hit comedy had been off the air for about six years—but his point remained.
And the effects have a way of snowballing. Not too long after Obama said, “I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” his long-time supporter Jay-Z backed his play saying, “You can choose to love whoever you love.” Coming from one of the kings of the hip-hop community, which is often perceived as homophobic, the move was both surprising and also another sign of a shifting tide in the public’s perception of gay unions–and how widely they’re supported.
The above image of the Renly Baratheon figurine from Funko superimposed with a marriage equality symbol was posed on the official Game of ThronesInstagram feed Wednesday. GOT Instagram
Characters in comic books have advanced the conversation as well. Although independent comics lead the way with characters like Maggie and Hopey in Love and Rockets, for years the Comics Code Authority–and cultural attitudes–limited the role of LGBT characters in mainstream superhero titles. Over the last couple of decades, however, LGBT characters like the reimagined Batwoman and Green Lantern Alan Scott have made their way into comics, and both Marvel and DC have featured superhero storylines that featured same-sex marriage. Just two months ago, DC Comics introduced a transgender character to the Batgirl storyline.
A recent GLAAD count (see chart above) found that 4.4 percent of characters on scripted TV are LGBT, up from 1.1 percent in 2007, and the influx of LGBT characters, creators and performers is likely to continue, particularly as services like Netflix, Hulu, comiXology, and iTunes make it easier for people to access more obscure films and programs. And now that stories don’t just happen on television and movie screens anymore (@SummerBreak, anyone?) it’s also happening on even more channels: Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and so on.
Does that mean reruns of Modern Family on Hulu persuaded the Supreme Court to strike down DOMA and effectively end Prop 8? Probably not. But the court can do what it did knowing that the public will understand its ruling in a way they may not have 20 years ago because same-sex marriage is now in their living rooms, movie theaters, and Twitter feeds.
Things were different in 1996 and 2008 – but they may never be that way again.
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