You Think That’s Radical? Just Wait a Few Years

During my 2004 reelection campaign to the Georgia Supreme Court, I was targeted by the state branch of the Christian Coalition for allegedly having radically progressive views. Specifically, I was accused of being too gay-friendly because I was part of the six-justice majority that struck down Georgia’s anti-sodomy law in 1998.

I ultimately won that election by a landslide. Still, I’ll never forget how surreal it felt to be publicly called a radical for making a decision based on equality under the law. The label radical was, of course, meant as an insult, to mark me as some sort of extremist. This accusation was not only belied by my moderate record but also missed the mark by ignoring an obvious truth: so-called “radicals” have played an invaluable role in advancing American democracy and freedoms.

Progressive Views Throughout American History

The United States was founded on the revolutionary concepts of liberty, equality, and justice, and progressive radicals have been pushing us to live up to — and expand the meanings of — those ideals ever since.

Time and time again, throughout this nation’s history, societal views that were once considered unthinkable have been embraced by the majority because brave, determined, visionary people advocated for reform.

In the mid-1800s, radical abolitionists popularized the previously incomprehensible notion (believed by many) that it was immoral to own human beings, tipping the United States toward the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the 13th Amendment, which officially abolished slavery.

Some of those same radicals later turned their attention to another seemingly ridiculous cause: the women’s suffrage movement. Their efforts helped give women the right to vote in 1920, and their methods were reflected in other important progressive movements of the early 20th century, including women’s rights and greater protections for workers and consumers.?

By the time World War II ended, radicals had played a part in:

? Ending child labor and creating workplace safety regulations

? Creating federal oversight for food and drugs

? Establishing a minimum wage and 40-hour workweeks

? Establishing Social Security and unemployment insurance

None of these ideas were mainstream when they were first introduced. It took progressive activism to push them into the American zeitgeist.

In the second half of the 20th century, so-called “radical pacifists” like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and others, used the philosophy of nonviolent resistance to hasten the civil rights movement and manifest a stunning series of progressive achievements, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

Until this method of peaceful protest was employed, the U.S. government had failed to enact any significant race-based civil rights laws in nearly 100 years.

And, of course, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender radicals have been championing the cause of LGBTQ+ rights for decades. They resisted unfair police treatment at Stonewall in 1969 and demanded better AIDS research and treatments in the ’80s and ’90s. They launched the successful marriage equality movement, culminating with the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Obergefell v. Hodges ruling in 2015, which legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states.

The understanding that LGBTQ+ Americans deserve the same respect, dignity, and rights as all other Americans was not common until radicals — through steadfast argument, education, and protest — managed to reframe public perception and inspire change. The same was true for all the previous progressive movements in our nation’s history.

In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that the sex discrimination provisions listed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also forbid employers from discriminating against employees based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, giving the LGBTQ+ community federal job protection for the first time.

When writing the majority opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch, who a conservative president appointed, noted: “Those who adopted the Civil Rights Act might not have anticipated their work would lead to this particular result. But the limits of the drafters’ imagination supply no reason to ignore the law’s demands.”

In other words, the law is the law, but our ideas and values progress.

Ours Is a Progressive Society

A study published in Public Opinion Quarterly in December 2021 found that Americans are much more liberal on social issues such as gender, sexuality, race, and personal liberty than in the 1970s. The study, which included Americans born as early as 1982 and as late as 2000, determined that each generation was more liberal than the one that came before it, regardless of political party.

Much of that progress can be credited to the radicals among us, who, for nearly 250 years, have committed themselves to making our union safer, fairer, and more egalitarian.

Their work continues today. Social issues ignored or derided just a few years ago have surged into the mainstream thanks to people who have chosen to tell their stories or take a stand. Black Lives Matter, #MeToo , Indigenous peoples’ land rights, and climate change, are just some of the movements that have recently gained significant traction with the American public.

So, the next time you want to dismiss someone for having a radical social view, stop and listen to them instead. You might just hear your future opinion.