Over the Rainbow: - Wrestling With Angels

The senior policy analyst for Concerned Women For America, Peter LaBarbera, explained
the success of ‘Queer Eye’ saying, “It’s a funny sort of novelty to see Jay Leno made over by a
bunch of gay guys. The gay side thinks this is their civil rights movement, but I don’t think most
American viewers see homosexuality as a civil rights issue, and the average Joe doesn’t want to
see two guys kissing… the media and Hollywood elites are out of touch with mainstream
America” (Stoeltje, 2003).
Gays in the Corporations
In the 1970’s and 80’s, with the encouragement of the women’s movement, universities
focused on career development over family formation, even for women. Women were being
told to be independent, prepare for a profession or go into business so they could take charge
of their own lives.
College textbooks on marriage and the family were having a negative effect on the family.
After a careful review of twenty undergraduate marriage and family textbooks, Dr. Norval
Glenn, noted that textbooks conveyed a pessimistic view of marriage through the use of antimarriage
rhetoric. The values and social functions of marriage were downplayed and the costs
of marriage to adults, especially women, were exaggerated. Glenn concluded that the story
the textbooks tell about marriage is that “marriage is just one of many equally acceptable and
equally productive adult relationships. These various relationships include… gay and lesbian
families” (Glenn, 1997). Glenn concluded that the textbooks were misleading because they failed
to discuss the real problems involved in alternative lifestyles.
The research on textbooks was sponsored and published by The Institute for American
Values, an academic think tank of scholars, most of whom were Jewish or secular
communitarians rather than conservative Christians (Glenn, 2002). Dr. David Blankenhorn,
founder and president of The Institute for American Values, said that protecting the marriedcouple,
mother-father child raising unit as an important social institution for adults, children
and society was a major concern (Blankenhorn,2009).
Gay Demographics:
Mainstream surveys and polls generally neglected to include a separate category for gay
people. In 1989 Overlooked Opinions, Inc., a market research and opinion polling firm
concerned with the gay, lesbian and bisexual market, was formed in Chicago. A survey done
Over the Rainbow: The Gay Battle for Social Reorganization of America. 2010
Dr. M. L. Coppock
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