Today the gay community gets a lot of press. I have noticed that there are quite a few gay characters on TV these days. The other day I saw an ad for a gay sitcom on cable or something. When I go to the “Love and Relationships” section on MSN.com, I see a section for “Gays & Lesbians.” When I’m driving down the road, I sometimes see rainbow bumper stickers. Times are changing, and it looks like being gay is in.

But how did things change so much from when I was a kid? I think one reason is that the gay community has stumbled on an important truth: He who is not against us is for us.

I’ve found when it comes to the issue of homosexuality most people are inherently against it. But this opposition is misleading, because it carries very little weight. For most people, their opposition has not been (for the most part) very well thought out. In many cases, their opposition comes simply from being raised in a culture that opposes it. They were taught it was bad, so it’s bad.

Unless their reasons for opposing homosexuality are intense and personal, when something comes along to make them question their beliefs--they are likely to quietly back down. And when the culture around them changes, they are more likely to change too.

From the gay community’s perspective, they have no other way to improve their status than to confront and challenge the culture around them. Thus we have been witnesses to countless protests, gay parades, gay festivals, and gay characters in books, movies, and television. The result has been that for those whose opposition was weak, they have backed down. Thus providing positive reinforcement for these tactics. It works, so the gay communities keep doing it.

As Thomas Sowell pointed out in his book Knowledge and Decisions, there are some problems inherent in a movement seeking to elevate the status of a particular people group. First, the movement’s organizers typically never conceive that their efforts might succeed. Thus there is no thought given to determining at what point the movement can be considered successful. And since they have not defined what success is, there is no plan for what to do when that time arrives. Like a runaway train, it will go until something stops it. There is also the fact it is highly unlikely someone who is benefiting from the movement’s continuation will have any desire to stop.

Many people have traditionally been opposed to homosexuality because of its’ illegitimacy. Marriage represented family and stability, and had a certificate signifying society’s seal of approval. Like prostitution and cohabitation, homosexuality paled in comparison to the ‘rock’ that was marriage. However, marriage has never been the ‘rock’ that we would like it to be, and in recent years with 50% of marriages ending in divorce it has lost some of its' charm. Once praised in golden terms, the modern concept of family is now the ‘dysfunctional family.’ It doesn’t have anywhere near the respect and admiration that it once had. Besides, nobody pays much attention to abstract things like ‘the importance of healthy families in maintaining a healthy society.’ In a generation absorbed with pleasure and self-gratification, Eminem lyrics, stock quotes, and the label on Christina Aguilera’s jeans are about all that anyone cares about.

Homosexuality has also lost much of its’ illegitimacy. It is now quite common for companies to offer benefits to same-sex partners. Gay couples have also gone as far as to adopt children, and multiple states have either granted or attempted to grant homosexual unions legal status. Those few couples staying together for the long term enhance the credibility of those who don’t. The result has been that legitimacy is no longer a big issue.

Many people are also opposed to homosexuality for religious reasons. Traditionally, it has been represented as sin, a wrong act. In ancient times Jewish law required that homosexuals be put to death -- as well as those committing murder, adultery, and bestiality. Apparently homosexuality was perceived as a big enough of a threat to the culture that it was punishable by death. In various places throughout the Bible, homosexuality was treated as something to be avoided at all costs, and lumped together with various evils.

In modern Christianity, as well as modern Judaism, homosexuality no longer carries the death sentence that it once did, but a strong aversion to it is still practiced.

Still, the person opposing it for religious reasons is left with very few ways to do so. Christianity teaches us to love our enemies. And the emphasis of Christianity is on changing one’s own behavior rather than that of others. A strong opponent is one who not only can defend themselves, but also carry on a strong offense. In this regard, Christianity is a weak opponent.

There is another factor that enhances the gay community’s likelihood of success: their permanence.

First, there is the issue of gender. People like to think in terms of black and white: Something is either male or female, masculine or feminine. Men must always be ‘masculine’ and women must always be ‘feminine’ - so the reasoning goes. If a man is not masculine, then he must be like a woman. If he is like a woman, then he must like other men. This is the unspoken logic with which many of us think. Therefore when we come across a man who is effeminate and speaks with a lisp, we immediately assume he is gay. There will always be effeminate men and masculine women. Therefore people will always find themselves nudged into roles that they may or may not have originally fit.

Homosexuality has one other advantage in human nature: people like to be sexually pleasured.

For these reasons there will always be gay (and bisexual) people.

But by far the most deadly thing happening in society is the ‘re-education’ taking place. Opposition to homosexuality has become increasingly tied to an image: bigot. Oppose it and you suddenly become a hateful, ignorant, anal-retentive type who is behind the times. Stand up and say something against it in the wrong place, and you will find yourself labeled as hateful and experiencing a wave of hate from people who see no irony in the situation. Nobody wants to known as a “bigot” or a “meany.” The pressure to sit down and shut up is increasing. I need only mention the name “Dr. Laura….” Try a Yahoo search on her name and see what comes up.

The conditions for success are ripe. The movement is advancing, and the weather looks good.

I predict success. Not only will there be the advancement of the gay lifestyle: with the acceptance of gay sex comes the acceptance of bisexuality as well. And because men and women will always like each other, there will always be far more bisexuals than gays. This, rather than gay rights, will be the biggest outcome out of all of this.

Unfortunately, the impact of homosexuality and bisexuality on society as a whole is one of the most understudied, or at least under-reported, topics in modern research. Very little thought has been given to the implications for society that the acceptance of it will have.

Many people recognize that as the family goes, so goes society. The family isn’t doing so well, but little attention has been given to fixing it. Instead society is seeing to it that their own immediate needs and wants are gratified. Just about the only true activism going on today is people working to ensure that everyone can gratify themselves in any which they should have a notion.

As it goes many times, when man thinks he has found a better way that just happens to go against the flow of conventional wisdom, scientific, or economic principles - I believe there will be a price to pay. I suspect some day when they have achieved their extended sexual liberation, we will find out in moral and cultural terms the same thing that the Russians found out in economic terms after communism: we made a very big mistake.