The decline and cancellation of Dr. Laura's TV show in the years 2000 and 2001 occurred a few years before the first Canadian province and the first U.S. state legalized same-sex marriage. At the time, the U.S. population was heavily opposed to marriage equality and to equal rights for the LGBT community generally. The opposition to her program demonstrated the growing strength of the LGBT movement for equal rights and support by the general adult population for marriage equality.
There may be two similar events
in U.S. history. When the U.S. was founded, there was a
biblically-based near consensus among the public about slavery. Many Bible passages -- particularly in the Hebrew Scriptures (a.k.a. Old Testament) -- showed that God had condoned and regulated the
institution. St. Paul
and Yeshua of Nazareth (Jesus Christ) had every opportunity to condemn the immorality of slavery. However, neither
criticized it. It was only when individuals deviated from the Bible's clear
statements about slavery that an abolition movement began. To paraphrase
Michael Johnston of Kerusso Ministries:
"It is because we jettisoned as a people that biblical
consensus on slavery that we lead to a different position-taking on human
bondage based on opinion."
Deviating from the clear mandate of
Scriptures, the abolition movement was eventually successfully in freeing
the slaves in the U.S. Decades later, in the early 20th century, there was a growing belief that society should
jettison much of the Bible's stance on restrictions in the role of women.
In 2011, national public opinion polls started to consistently show that most American adults favored allowing same-sex couples to marry. Voter plebescites, legislative action and both state and federal court rulings eventually led to all but a dozen states attaining marriage equality by early 2015. Appeals of four same-sex marriage cases from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee have been accepted and consolidated by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court is expected to issue a ruling that may legalize same-sex marriage across the entire country. Once that is attained, the next obvious cultural change will probably involve gender identity.
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Dr. Laura's evolving beliefs and statements about homosexuality over the past two decades:
According to Wikipedia:
"Prior to 1997, Schlessinger was very supportive to gay callers during
her radio show. In those years, she took issue with Christian religious
leaders who were opposed to gay relationships, and said that it was cruel to
deny love and happiness to gay couples. She renounced this view in 1997,
however, and said she had been misinformed in her earlier views. Soon, her
monologues approvingly mentioned ex-gay groups who claimed they could help
homosexuals become heterosexual, and she attacked the American Psychological
Association for condemning the [pro-equality position} of ex-gay groups. Schlessinger cited
Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, a Harvard-, MIT- and UT-educated psychiatrist, as
support for her revised views on homosexuality." 1
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Unfortunately, this is Income Tax time.
And so it will take a while to complete this essay.
2010-DEC-06: In her web site blog, she discussed her stand on the military's "Don't ask, Don't tell" policy.
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References used:
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essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
"Laura Schlessinger," Wikipedia, at: http://en.wikipedia.org/ This quotation has been deleted from Wikipedia since it was added to this essay.
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