Social change usually manifests within society as a result of two primary forces: sustained political pressure and cultural shifts driven by media representation. The prototypical case study of this phenomena is the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights. While there have been passionate and brave advocates for LGBTQ+ equality throughout modern history, most activists and historians consider the “Stonewall” riots of 1969, wherein patrons of a gay bar in New York’s West Village fought back against a police raid, the event that launched the first sustained, large-scale national, and global, gay rights justice movement, as evidenced by the marked increase in formal and cultural expressions of equality in the decades that followed that pivotal event. Examples of the successes that followed Stonewall include:
Homosexuality removed from the American Psychiatric Association’s list of mental illness (1973)
Dade County Florida prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (1977)
Harvey Milk becomes just the sixth openly gay person elected to public office (1977)
Democratic Party becomes the first political party in US history to endorse a gay rights platform (1980)
Berkley California becomes first US city to offer employees domestic partner benefits (1986)
A significant characteristic of the nature of the activism following Stonewall is that the gay community not only fought for legal rights, they fought for social acceptance as well. A consequence of both political and social successes was the increased representation of members of the gay community in popular culture. Elton John, Ian McKellen, Boy George, Martina Navratilova, and many other prominent pop culture figures came out in the 80s and achieved mainstream success and a measure of social acceptance not heretofore possible. It should be noted that these successes were not without strong, bigoted pushback, including horrific homophobia in the face of the AIDS epidemic. The aggressive hostility the gay community faced, however, served to ratchet up activism rather than push it underground. It should also be noted that the transgender community did not share in the successes of the broader gay community, and it wasn’t until more recent efforts by the Trans community to push for civil rights and social acceptance that comparable gains were made (though we are still a long way from true equality for all members of the LGBTQ+ communities).
As a consequence of the broad, sustained, gay rights movement following Stonewall, a bit of a tipping point occurred wherein broader gay representation in the media led to a dramatic shift in public opinion regarding gay rights issues. Gay marriage, for example, remained unpopular within mainstream society well into the aughts. Almost overnight, it seemed, opinion shifted from strong opposition to gay marriage to strong approval. In 2001, nearly 60% of the country opposed gay marriage, with only 35% in favor of it. Today, that figure is completely reversed, with 60% of the country now in favor of gay marriage, and only 30% opposed:
“You can’t find another issue where attitudes have shifted so rapidly,” said Don Haider-Markel, a political science professor at the University of Kansas who has studied public opinion of LGBT rights over the years.
Two of the “tipping point” pop culture events that played significant roles in this dramatic shift in public opinion were the coming out, and subsequent success, of actor / comedian Ellen DeGeneres and the popularity of the sitcom Will and Grace. What distinguished DeGeneres from other pop culture figures who came out before her was that her coming out was paralleled as a major plot point on her sitcom. While this was met with controversy and, ultimately, the canceling of her show, DeGeneres returned to her standup career as an openly gay woman and was warmly received by the public. In 2003, DeGeneres became the host of “Ellen,” the first daytime talk show featuring an openly gay host. The show attained rapid success, becoming one of the most popular daytime talk shows, and garnering several awards since its inception. What made Will and Grace, the hit ABC sitcom which ran from 1998 to 2006, significant was that it embraced the sexual orientation of the shows gay main characters and “mainstreamed” their life by presenting narratives not distinctly different from those of other similar mainstream American tv sitcoms.
It is clear that this kind of dramatic shift in public perception would not have occurred were it not for the accelerated and sustained activism of the gay community following Stonewall, which laid the foundation for popular acceptance. However it was key mass media events, following decades of activism, that ultimately rocket-fueled the shift. There is a lesson, here, in how conditions for Azarim can be improved. There must obviously be sustained activism to fight for equity and justice, but there must likewise be a push to change public perception. The mobile sanctuary can play a role in the latter, which can hopefully influence the former. As a novel and highly visible new service within the community, the mobile sanctuary will surely spark curiosity and attract some attention, likely even by mainstream media outlets. As such, if coinciding with a “public relations” campaign, the Mobile Sanctuary could provide an opportunity to shift public perception and raise consciousness regarding the root causes of homelessness, and help undo prejudices regarding the Zarim. There could be a website and social media channels for the Mobile Sanctuary, for example, that could educate the public on a host of related issues. These media sources could, likewise, showcase content by and about the Zarim, helping to humanize a dehumanized population.
There is, however, one key distinction that must be made between gay rights advocacy and Zarim advocacy. Media moguls and executives are not saints, they would not have promoted gay-friendly content had they not calculated a potential financial gain in doing so. Clearly, once popular acceptance had reached a certain threshold, the rewards of tapping the gay community as a market into which sponsors could expand outweighed the risks of public backlash. Given that the Zarim are, by and large, an economically disadvantaged population, there is little incentive for mass media to embrace them. As such, shifts in public perception must rely on alternative media outlets as the primary means by which to distribute Zarim-friendly content.
The power to effect a consciousness shift and trigger a social response via alternative, or “outsider,” means shouldn’t be underestimated. It was, for example, the clever and successful use of visual language that facilitated the Occupy Movement, which was triggered by Kalle Lasn, the editor of the anti-consumerism magazine adBusters, whose now famous ballerina on a bull meme was propagated by Lasn to help “sell” the movement.
In my own professional career, I have found some success in using good design and clever guerilla communications strategies and tactics in support of social causes, so I have seen and experienced first-hand how good visual communications can neutralized the mass media advantage of a powerful and well-funded opposition. In 2013, for example, I worked with The Sierra Club and other local organizations to push back against efforts by the Mayor and his administration to develop The Rio Grande Bosque, a stretch of natural land in the heart of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The only major newspaper in the area, The Albuquerque Journal, is notoriously conservative and they coordinated with the Mayor’s office to sell his development efforts and try to neutralize our dissent. The paper published multiple editorials on the Mayor’s behalf and often misrepresented our positions. We were significantly outgunned financially and in terms of traditional media communications firepower.
We had one key weapon in our arsenal, however, and we leveraged it well to rally support to our cause: popular social media. Our facebook page had many followers and was actively used by the community. I kept track of which content produced the best response and used that data to continue to build support for our efforts. I noticed, for example, that a video I posted of bulldozers beginning to rip up the Bosque went locally viral, so I designed a rally poster using the bulldozer motif that likewise elicited a strong response:
I also leveraged the social media reach of local musicians by organizing a music benefit called The Big Bosque Benefit Bash. The event was heavily attended and drew the attention of the local news media:
Ultimately, despite going up against a powerful, well-funded political machine and being severely outmanned in traditional media support, we managed to bring the Mayor to the negotiating table and win some concessions.
The point is not to suggest that a humble guerilla media campaign can trigger a social movement on behalf of the Zarim ala Occupy. That would be a bit grandiose and optimistic. But if the tools of propaganda can be used to sell the values that have exacerbated and caused homelessness, they can be used to undo those values, and promote alternative values, as well. And there is mounting evidence that new media, if wisely and cleverly employed, can loosen the grip that traditional media has had on our consciousness, and by extension our politics, and begin to shift some longstanding and deeply entrenched paradigms.