Diffusion of Innovations

 Diffusion of Innovation Theory 

Gay Marriage: 

    There are some ideas that at one point in time seem unthinkable to become mainstream and accepted. Some of these ideas and concepts retain the stigma associated with them while others will surprising gain public support and become first tolerated, then accepted, and then celebrated as a part of mainstream society and public dialogue. Using the diffusion of innovation theory, the theory can apply to inventions such as social media, the internet, and the iPhone. While the theory can also be applied and used to study difference in public opinion such as women's suffrage, abortion, and what I am going to discuss here: gay marriage.

    Looking at Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation theory, essentially teaches that over time the general public become more and more accepting of certain inventions or public opinions. The timeline in order goes from the pioneer phase, to the early adopters, to the early majority, to the late majority, and concludes with the laggard phase. The model is pretty clear that over time, what is once thought to not be acceptable slowly picks up steam within the public to where eventually becomes not only a tolerated as a fringe position but will eventually become so mainstream and accepted that it will be controversial to oppose which was unthinkable in the same society just a few years prior. 

    When looking at the category of gay marriage, public opinion on the subject has basically inverted since the mid 1990s when looking at a poll conducted by gallup. When Americans were asked their opinion on whether or not gay marriage should be viewed as equal and the same to traditional marriage in the context of the law back in 1996, only 27% had support compared to 68% that disagreed. In 2020 when the same question was asked, only 31% opposed while 67% approved. This is nearly a complete inversion of public opinion in less than 25 years. The American public's opinion on this issue has completely shifted in only a couple of generations time, how did this happen?

    

 To go back to how we got here, we need to look at who supported these issues during the pioneer phase. In the early 1960s, all 50 states still had at least some form of what was known as "sodomy laws" in place. The goal of sodomy laws was mainly to restrict and prohibit mainly homosexual sexual acts. The first state to repeal these laws was Illinois back in 1962. This wasn't just simply laws not acknowledging or acceptance gay marriage, these were laws to restrict and prohibit homosexual behavior and acts, an unthinkable standard by the logic of today. 

    Something to keep in mind is that the laws of any society, whether it be America or anywhere else, essentially reflect the values and morals of that society. When we go back to the founding days of America and look up until just a few decades ago, America was overwhelming a religious, Christian country and our laws represented the shared worldview we had at the time. We can see this through the topic of homosexuality. The traditional, conservative, Christian understanding of homosexuality views it as something that should not be promoted and definitely not celebrated in society. Traditional Christianity views sex and more specifically marriage between a man and a woman only and they reject any variation of that, including homosexuality . 

    As Christianity has been on a rapid decline in America, but also in the West more broadly, those beliefs and values are being replaced instead with a secular, atheistic culture that idolizes the material world and self interest over traditional virtues. 

    Now that we have all of this context, we can bring the diffusion of innovations theory back to this subject and can see what factors have propelled the radical change in public perception of homosexuality in just a few decades. We can see that probably the biggest factor is a decline in traditional worldview (Christianity), in addition to the gradual increase of acceptance by academia and entertainment. 

        Homosexuality was viewed, not just by a few fundamentalist groups in the deep south, but by a large amount of Americans as a mental disorder. Even according to the American Psychiatric Association. Homosexuality was on their list of mental illnesses until 1973 it was finally removed. 

    You can also observe throughout time how homosexuality was viewed and treated in the entertainment world by Hollywood. A short lived, ABC, sitcom called "The Corner Bar" back in 1972 is known to be TV's first gay, recurring character. Considering that the vast majority of states still had sodomy laws in place in 1972, I would infer that this was highly controversial for the time and perhaps one of the reasons the show was short lived, due to public backlash. We can see this becoming more and more mainstream overtime when we see one of the most popular sitcoms of all time Friends, in the mid 1990s was able to depict a homosexual wedding between two women without the huge amount of backlash. 

    A combination of a decline in traditional, Christian virtues in addition to a gradual acceptance of homosexuality from academia and entertainment has led to the vast majority of Americans not only tolerating or even accepting homosexuality but celebrating it. We can even see that right after the Supreme Court's 2015 decision, Obergefell v. Hodges where the Court ruled that the fundamental right to marry is given to homosexuals, from a federal level. Public opinion was already in favor of gay marriage prior to the decision, but we can see a huge spike in acceptance right after the decision too. In 2015, 60% of Americans supported gay marriage, compared to just 37% who didn't. Just one year later those numbers shifted to 67% to 31%! 

    I think in the context of diffusion of innovations theory, we are just about in the laggard phase on the issue of gay marriage and I believe a combination of a decline of a traditional worldview, a gradual increase in exposure through entertainment, and an acceptance from academia, have paved the way for the issue of gay marriage and homosexuality in general to undertake a huge public opinion change in just a few decades.