Gay rights activism In 1987

Gay rights activism How they changed Australia and Americas Mind

In 1987 Kirk partnered with Hunter Madsen (who used the pen name "Erastes Pill") to write an essay, The Overhauling of Straight America, which was published in Guide Magazine. They argued that gays must portray themselves in a positive way to straight America, and that the main aim of making homosexuality acceptable could be achieved by getting Americans "to think that it is just another thing, with a shrug of their shoulders". Then "your battle for legal and social rights is virtually won". The pair developed their argument in the 1989 book "After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the ’90s." The book outlined a public relations strategy for the LGBT movement. After its publication Kirk appeared in the pages of Newsweek, Time and The Washington Post.
The book is often critically described by social conservatives as important to the success of the LGBT Movement in the 90's and as part of an alleged "homosexual agenda". The conservative Christian group Focus on the Family claim that,

It is an agenda that they basically set in the late 1980s, in a book called 'After the Ball,' where they laid out a six-point plan for how they could transform the beliefs of ordinary Americans with regard to homosexual behavior — in a decade-long time frame.... They admit it privately, but they will not say that publicly. In their private publications, homosexual activists make it very clear that there is an agenda. The six-point agenda that they laid out in 1989 was explicit: Talk about gays and gayness as loudly and as often as possible... Portray gays as victims, not as aggressive challengers... Give homosexual protectors a just cause... Make gays look good... Make the victimizers look bad... Get funds from corporate America..^[1]