We get closer and closer to the tipping point. It won’t be long now. One generation that can’t understand why there is even a question is dying in ever-increasing numbers. Another generation that also doesn’t understand the fuss is preparing to vote. The generations that follow them will look much like these children, only more so.

It won’t take long before the thoughtless, flinching bigotry is replaced by easy familiarity and acceptance. It is still too long, as the delay costs families, jobs, lives. But the genie cannot be put back in the closet. It’s coming.

Marriage equality will arrive while many, very close to half the voting population in any given state, who oppose it still live. More in states where the rights are recognized by courts instead of elected officials. The people who vote now to delay the inevitable can say, “Over my dead body”, but that won’t be how it happens. They will see equality become the law.

An article that came out Friday brought news of a “lovely” new tactic being used by police against the protestors of Occupy Wall Street.

Arbitrary violence is nothing new. The apparently systematic use of sexual assault against women protestors is new. I’m not aware of any reports of police intentionally grabbing women’s breasts before March 17, but on March 17 there were numerous reported cases, and in later nightly evictions from Union Square, the practice became so systematic that at least one woman told me her breasts were grabbed by five different police officers on a single night (in one case, while another one was blowing kisses.) The tactic appeared so abruptly, is so obviously a violation of any sort of police protocol or standard of legality, that it is hard to imagine it is anything but an intentional policy.

For obvious reasons, most of the women who have been victims of such assaults have been hesitant to come forward. Suing the city is a miserable and time-consuming task and if a woman brings any charge involving sexual misconduct, they can expect to have their own history and reputations—no matter how obviously irrelevant—raked over the coals, usually causing immense damage to their personal and professional life. The threat of doing so operates as a very effective form of intimidation. One exception is Cecily McMillan, who was not only groped but suffered a broken rib and seizures during her arrest on March 17, and held incommunicado, denied constant requests to see her lawyer, for over 24 hours thereafter. Shortly after release from the hospital she appeared on Democracy Now! And showed part of a handprint, replete with scratch-marks, that police had left directly over her right breast. (She is currently pursuing civil charges against the police department).

I’d like to emphasize this because when I first mention this, the usual reaction, from reporters or even some ordinary citizens, is incredulity. ‘Surely this must be a matter of a few rogue officers!’ It is difficult to conceive of an American police commander directly telling officers to grope women’s breasts—even through indirect code words.

It shouldn’t be difficult. Police departments around the country have demonstrated that they view Occupy protestors as criminals to be treated in any way that makes them stop (not that it does), and those views have been seen up and down both departmental and political/administrative chains of command. The protestors are a threat. Do whatever it takes to make them go away.

In this case, that may mean targeting female protestors because they are viewed as uniquely vulnerable. It may, as the author of the article suggests, mean targeting female protestors because the outrage pushes other protestors to confront the cops–”justifying” any level of violence with which the cops may choose to response.

In either case, this means targeting female protestors in a way that male protestors are not targeted. Female protestors face an additional burden when they choose to participate. This raises the question: Why would they protest? The answers may seem obvious, but I don’t think they are.