[1] I am not a reader of Malcolm Gladwell’s 2000 book “[2] The Tipping Point,” but I think I get it anyway (booksellers must hate people like me!). In every social change, there comes a point when widely-held attitudes suddenly reach a point when the minority becomes the majority.

Maybe we are heading toward this point on same-sex marriage.  Brian Montopoli thought so as well, in “Hot Topic: [3] A Gay Marriage Tipping Point?”

“And even as courts move to invalidate gay marriage bans on legal grounds, it’s important to remember that no legislature has yet moved to legalize same-sex marriage – though that could happen this year in states like Vermont and New York.  

“Indeed, most Americans do not support gay marriage: According to the latest CBS News poll on the topic, just one in three back full marriage rights for same-sex couples. Another 27 percent support civil unions, while 35 percent want no legal recognition at all.”

Montopoli’s remarks on April 6 are already out of date.  Following [4] Iowa and [5] Vermont in the last few weeks, New York may ace out other states for fifth place in the marriage movement, if Gov. David Paterson has his way.  And the CBS Political Hotsheet footnoted his comments with the reminder that the California Legislature did pass legislation to legalized same-sex marriage, twice, even though Governor Hummer vetoed it, [6] twice.

[7]

Today Governor Paterson introduces legislation to legalize same-sex marriage in New York, according to the New York Times [8] City Room Blog. It may however be a test shot to see [9] where legislators stand on the issue, not a genuine attempt to get a bill into law in this legislative session. 

“Mr. Paterson has said in recent days that the State Legislature should move ahead now with the legislation regardless of whether it can muster enough votes. His reasoning, which some gay rights advocates have challenged, is that New York should make a statement that it is committed to treating same-sex couples the same way it treats opposite-sex couples.”

So, a tipping punt?  At least it will begin to shift the weight of the argument away from criticism of “activist judges.” Would the criticism of “activist legislators” carry any weight on the scale of social tipping points?

But those of us who remember the horrors of blackmail, criminal charges, careers destroyed, abject shame and the suicide of lesbians and gay men in the not-too-distant past, are reluctant to rejoice any time soon. Can a tipping point tip backwards again if it teeters too long at the tipping point?

When the late [10] Dr. John Boswell published his blockbuster book in 1980, [11] Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality, he revealed two things in our LGBT history. The first was that there was an ancient and medieval history of tolerance of same-sex relationships which had never been laid out so completely, and which had plenty of standing in the Christian church as well. After the book came out, he received further leads to historical evidence that same-sex marriage ceremonies had been performed in the Christian church from as early as the 4^th century to as late as the 14^th century, and over a broad geographical area from Paris to Jerusalem.  This resulted in [12] Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe.

But the second thing which Boswell’s extensive research showed was that as general intolerance deepened, with the darkening of the Dark Ages, prejudice against a number of groups, such as homosexuals and gypsies, reached a “tipping point” when all of Europe shifted form relative tolerance to complete intolerance in less than 100 years, from “gay marriage” to the death penalty.

It seems clear that homophobic conservatives in our society are aware of Tipping Point theory, and they are afraid that point could be reached with one more state, or one more gay rights rally, or one more liberal church. They fight virtually every skirmish of openness, and are not likely to let Paterson’s good deed go unpunished either.

Our concern is that if we are reaching a tipping point in America in favor of marriage equality for all people, that it stays tipped, not just for four months as in California last year, or for four years until another Presidential campaign puts our rights and our value on the political auction block, but for good.

Gladwell’s thesis, apparently, is that little changes add up, and the power of individual action in the aggregate contributes to a tipping point. Every one of us who comes out, votes, gets active, blogs, contributes, and prays for positive change, helps bring us to that permanent tipping point.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles