During the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union there were many changes in the United States as our society responded to communist ideology.
Americans became aware of our theism and how its role in our society contrasted to the Soviet atheism.
Most importantly Americans became aware of the role of the free market and free trade in our prosperity.
To a limited extent Americans also supported a more equal society in both the civil rights domain and in the dissolution of our hereditary upper class.
I constantly bring up this question because we are currently in a conflict with Islam. At this point we have been in conflict for nearly 20 years since the end of our conflict with communist ideology. What are the changes in our society that reflect this conflict?
I would like to suggest that gay marriage and the acceptance of gays into our society is a very specific reaction to Islamism.
The largest body of Islamists are in the Arab world. The Arab world has a very strong male to male bonding tradition. As I pointed out before, sex between males in the Arab world is very common but entirely suppressed. The idea of intimacy between men in a marriage-like relation in the Arab world is abhorrent and subject to capital punishment.
I think our promotion of gay men and gay marriage is a direct response to the enemy, Islamism, that we face.
It is also a an open challenge to the structure of the Islamic world. Islamic members who are gay may see the American model as a form of hope and escape.
The same may be true for the widespread and increasing popularity of single motherhood in America. The Islamic world is based very strictly on arranged marriage for the purposes of strengthening tribal ties. To some Islamic women, the American model of the single mother is a direct challenge to the tribal structure of the Islamic world.