
Quillette Podcast Has the Gay Rights Revolution Gone Too Far for the Gay Community’s Own Good?
Mar 17, 2026
Ronan McCrea, a UCL professor of constitutional and European law and author of The End of the Gay Rights Revolution, outlines how recent gains could be fragile. He discusses threats from both conservative and leftist alliances, the impact of migration and religious conservatism, shifting sexual cultures and Pride rituals, and tensions between radical activism and reformist strategies.
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Gay Rights Are Recent Achievements That Can Recede
- Gay rights gains are recent and reversible rather than permanent progress.
- Ronan McCrea compares gay rights to Estonian independence: dramatic but historically contingent and vulnerable to reversal.
Rightward Intellectual Shift Threatens Gay Rights
- Political coalitions shifting rightward can target gay rights as part of a post-liberal social morality.
- McCrea cites figures like J.D. Vance and intellectuals pushing religiously informed enforcement of conservative norms.
Migration Alters Social Attitudes Toward Homosexuality
- Large migration from socially conservative regions can reduce support for sexual freedoms.
- McCrea references World Values Survey gaps and gives the Luxembourg/Alabama migration thought experiment.

