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| Open thread: questions and comments on gay rights | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| The gay rights movement in the US got a major boost today when President Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage. The handling of LGBT issues varies state by state and the country is starkly divided in its support of the movement. How today's news affects the state of gay rights in the country remains to be seen. Use this open thread to send us your questions and comments; we'll forward some to our live reporting team and feature others on this page. | |
| President Obama announces his support for same-sex marriage: OFA.BO/CLBAi9 | |
| "We're not there yet but it's improved" - ScottinSoCal | "We're not there yet but it's improved" - ScottinSoCal |
| I now live in Southern California, but I grew up in the 70s in a small town in an extremely conservative state. I can tell you things have gotten much better, even in my little hometown. We're not there yet. We probably won't be there for many years after I'm dead and gone, but it's improved. I dated a boy all through high school, but we were very discreet. We took girls to dances, and arranged to meet after we dropped them off for a little make-out session. If I had tried taking him to a dance, we'd have been kicked out, and probably expelled from the school after our parents threw us out of the house. My local newspaper just did an article about not having an LGBT prom this year, because all the students were going to their regular prom. I'm glad, and I'm happy they won't have to go through the same trouble we had. It won't be problem free - they'll face bigotry and discrimination, but it won't be the deep-seated hatred so openly displayed when I was younger. | I now live in Southern California, but I grew up in the 70s in a small town in an extremely conservative state. I can tell you things have gotten much better, even in my little hometown. We're not there yet. We probably won't be there for many years after I'm dead and gone, but it's improved. I dated a boy all through high school, but we were very discreet. We took girls to dances, and arranged to meet after we dropped them off for a little make-out session. If I had tried taking him to a dance, we'd have been kicked out, and probably expelled from the school after our parents threw us out of the house. My local newspaper just did an article about not having an LGBT prom this year, because all the students were going to their regular prom. I'm glad, and I'm happy they won't have to go through the same trouble we had. It won't be problem free - they'll face bigotry and discrimination, but it won't be the deep-seated hatred so openly displayed when I was younger. |
| There's no difference between Michigan and Mississippi in this visualization of gay rights: bit.ly/L0v2zs h/t @amichel | There's no difference between Michigan and Mississippi in this visualization of gay rights: bit.ly/L0v2zs h/t @amichel |
| "In Vermont, gay rights are part of daily life" - ExpatScotsman | "In Vermont, gay rights are part of daily life" - ExpatScotsman |
| Vermont was the first state to introduce civil unions and one of the first to allow same sex marriage. These were times of significant change and I remember driving back from New Hampshire to Vermont over the word FAGS and an arrow painted on the road pointing to the state line bridge across the Connecticut river. And now a dozen or so years later few if any people even think about it. | Vermont was the first state to introduce civil unions and one of the first to allow same sex marriage. These were times of significant change and I remember driving back from New Hampshire to Vermont over the word FAGS and an arrow painted on the road pointing to the state line bridge across the Connecticut river. And now a dozen or so years later few if any people even think about it. |
| "Change will come soon in Oregon" - edwardd | "Change will come soon in Oregon" - edwardd |
| I grew up in the Bay Area and now attend university in Oregon and to be honest i can't say i've ever experienced prejudice for being LGBT in either of the places i've lived. I didn't realize just how polarized the U.S. was on this issue. Although the states i spend the most time in don't have marriage rights i am confident that it will change very soon. Younger people are very pro-gay, i have yet to meet anyone on my campus who supports "traditional marriage". | I grew up in the Bay Area and now attend university in Oregon and to be honest i can't say i've ever experienced prejudice for being LGBT in either of the places i've lived. I didn't realize just how polarized the U.S. was on this issue. Although the states i spend the most time in don't have marriage rights i am confident that it will change very soon. Younger people are very pro-gay, i have yet to meet anyone on my campus who supports "traditional marriage". |
| In a few years, some NC census takers will wonder, "Why are all our young educated leaving the state?" #braindrain #gayrights | In a few years, some NC census takers will wonder, "Why are all our young educated leaving the state?" #braindrain #gayrights |
| "The past decade has been dizzying." - Prolestohorse | "The past decade has been dizzying." - Prolestohorse |
| In the 80s the rise of the New Right, the Moral Majority, and Reaganism combined with the specter of AIDS to create an environment that was frightening and deeply demoralizing and depressing. No one knew how far the backlash would go. Rumors persisted that Ellis Island was secretly being restored as a quarantine camp for gay men. I had panicky friends who talked of running away to Brazil or Israel (of all places.) (These same friends believed that gay marriage had been legalized in Sweden in the 1970s. These friends were Ivy-League educated, by the way. Just saying.) | In the 80s the rise of the New Right, the Moral Majority, and Reaganism combined with the specter of AIDS to create an environment that was frightening and deeply demoralizing and depressing. No one knew how far the backlash would go. Rumors persisted that Ellis Island was secretly being restored as a quarantine camp for gay men. I had panicky friends who talked of running away to Brazil or Israel (of all places.) (These same friends believed that gay marriage had been legalized in Sweden in the 1970s. These friends were Ivy-League educated, by the way. Just saying.) |
| I worked at a university in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. whose student newspaper printed letters that used such language as "fag" and "queer" in the name of freedom of expression. | I worked at a university in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. whose student newspaper printed letters that used such language as "fag" and "queer" in the name of freedom of expression. |
| Now I'm 57 years old and I don't feel like like I'm living in the same world that I lived in 30 years ago. Despite the distance we still have to go, I agree with your commentators that the progress of the past decade or so has been dizzying. | Now I'm 57 years old and I don't feel like like I'm living in the same world that I lived in 30 years ago. Despite the distance we still have to go, I agree with your commentators that the progress of the past decade or so has been dizzying. |
| I'm going to make an award and give it out to high school gays. Because I remember how hard that was. #GayRights | I'm going to make an award and give it out to high school gays. Because I remember how hard that was. #GayRights |
| "Where are the transgender voices?" - Lotusmind | "Where are the transgender voices?" - Lotusmind |
| We consistantly hear about the struggles of the "G" and the "L" components of the LGBT "movement", but ours is a similar and yet very different struggle. While gays and lesbians certainly must fight for their rights, we transgender people must fight to merely be recognised as human. | We consistantly hear about the struggles of the "G" and the "L" components of the LGBT "movement", but ours is a similar and yet very different struggle. While gays and lesbians certainly must fight for their rights, we transgender people must fight to merely be recognised as human. |
| "California is no longer the gay rights leader" - smalltownboy | "California is no longer the gay rights leader" - smalltownboy |
| I grew up in rural Vermont and have lived in San Francisco for most of my adult life. It's ironic that Vermont (which can be pretty backwoods outside of a few college towns and ski resorts) has more favorable laws on the books concerning GLBT rights than California (which prides itself on being so cutting edge). | I grew up in rural Vermont and have lived in San Francisco for most of my adult life. It's ironic that Vermont (which can be pretty backwoods outside of a few college towns and ski resorts) has more favorable laws on the books concerning GLBT rights than California (which prides itself on being so cutting edge). |
| San Francisco, and the rest of the Bay Area, has a well-deserved reputation as a bubble of progressive, left-of-center thought. It's interesting that so many other places across the US have caught up and surpassed California, in terms of granting equality and full citizenship to gays and lesbians. | San Francisco, and the rest of the Bay Area, has a well-deserved reputation as a bubble of progressive, left-of-center thought. It's interesting that so many other places across the US have caught up and surpassed California, in terms of granting equality and full citizenship to gays and lesbians. |
| This is a case where the arc of history will bend towards justice in a matter of years, and that's largely a factor of changing demographics. The millenials, regardless of ethnicity or religion, support equality for the GLBT community. It's a non-issue for them. But it still won't happen without a struggle, without a bunch of pushy, obnoxious gays and loud-mouthed lesbians demanding equal treatment before the law. That's the American way. | This is a case where the arc of history will bend towards justice in a matter of years, and that's largely a factor of changing demographics. The millenials, regardless of ethnicity or religion, support equality for the GLBT community. It's a non-issue for them. But it still won't happen without a struggle, without a bunch of pushy, obnoxious gays and loud-mouthed lesbians demanding equal treatment before the law. That's the American way. |