I never wish to downplay LGBT rights, but it kinda annoys me when people scream about the current state of affairs, acting like these are the end times. I was in high school at the beginning of that graph, and holy shit have we come far.
I knew one or two possibly gay dudes in high school. Ran into schoolmate at a bar when we were seniors, he about shit himself. “PLEASE don’t tell anyone!” “Sheldon, this place is half gay, half straight, nobody gives a shit. Can I get a hit on that?”
Same bar, I’m watching my girlfriend dance and a guy pulls up, offers me a drink. “Not gay, but I’ll take that drink!” He jumped back so fast he knocked his bar stool over, “Shit! I’m SO sorry man! I…” “I don’t care. So, that drink still on offer?” Fuck me. This was a bar where the Marlboro Man was in the corner making out with a bear, and gays were still scared in their own space!
Ever heard of f@g bashing? That was a fucking sport for rednecks and skinheads when I was a teen.
No, the fight ain’t over, but LGBT rights have made leaps and bounds I never thought I’d see in my life. Why you think trans people are suddenly an issue?! Because homosexuals got rights and it was no big deal to us heteros. Conservatives had to find a new target!
I think some of the people who are freaking out are scared because it feels like we’re regressing. Things definitely are better now than they were, but what if we continue on this trajectory and things get back to being that bad? I am too young to have been alive in the era you’re describing, but what gets to me is that I can remember that there was a feeling of progress when I was a teenager. Any given step forward didn’t solve homophobia by itself, but it didn’t need to when there were many small steps being made. Now it feels like we’re taking strides back.
My worry is “what happens when they run out of trans people and immigrants to harass, and they need another new distraction? What was the last culture war the fascists in this country lost, that they bitterly still remember?”
The Nazis didn’t stop at Jews just because they hated them the most. Eventually they got around to the other “undesirables”.
Idk if well ever get ours. We’re just so much smaller a demographic, and the whole medical aide of things seems to just inherently disgust cis people
None of us are free until all of us are free. I have faith that this fight is winnable because I used to be the kind of cis person who wanted to consider herself a trans ally, but who didn’t really know what that meant. In hindsight, I was too concerned with avoiding saying or doing the wrong thing, feeling like I was walking on eggshells around the topic of transness I don’t mean in a virtue signalling kind of way, but because I didn’t want to cause any harm, whether to an individual, or to trans activism in general — it wasn’t my cause, so I believed that the best thing to do was to be respectful and stay back. There are many cis people who aren’t necessarily disgusted, but confused and anxious about how to react (people on the left do this kind of transphobia a lot, in my opinion).
It took a partner coming out as trans to kick me out of that. I learned a lot about trans reality very fast, including how foolish my previous approach had been. It was admirable, in a way, to be so keen to help but not knowing how. It was also cowardly and ignorant. Ultimately though, I’m glad for this experience because it has shown me not just that it’s possible to change, but also that this change was super beneficial to me too. Being in community with trans people has made me more comfortable and happy in my own assigned gender — turns out that gender euphoria isn’t just relief from gender dysphoria, and that cis people can experience gender euphoria too. That journey has also helped me to unpick a bunch of my internalised misogyny — solidarity is one hell of a drug.
Trans people are a much smaller demographic, it’s true. However, when I reflect on how it felt to change my understanding on this topic, and how impactful it was on me, it makes me feel like progress is surely inevitable, because of how much this felt like puzzle pieces sliding together as a definite step to discovering Truth has been found. This is absolutely my fight, and whilst it’s not easy to cause someone to have the self growth journey that I did, the prospect of exponential growth increasing our fighting numbers gives me faith. Iirc, a similar thing happened with gay rights — as more people came out, then more people became aware that they had a gay neighbour, or colleague, or sister, or uncle. Whilst unfortunately there were some who became estranged from their loved ones due to this, there were others whose families became advocates for gay rights. The town I used to live, at one timr believed itself to have no gay people living there. Then one guy came out. Then a few years later, we’re up to 5. Then a few years later, it’s at 50.
The small number of trans people will mean it will take longer to get this fire to roaring temperature, but I actually do feel confident that we’ll get there. Perhaps it’s because I think we will make progress on trans rights because that’s literally what’s necessary for the world — climate change and patriarchy and classism and so many other things latch together so intricately that I don’t think we can meaningfully extricate any one piece enough, so we will have to reckon with the fact that none of us are free unless all of us are free.
LOL, read my post again for some inspiration! We’re getting there.
One problem I see with the youth is, uh, don’t know how to say it, they’re confused?
My daughter is 12, claims she’s bi, never kissed a boy, or a girl for that matter. I seriously doubt she’s bi, just that she can see both sexes as attractive. When I was young, I might have said I was bi! Going through puberty saw some bi fantasies. Nah. I peg the Kinsey Scale hard hetero.
Might have said I was trans! Liked hanging with the girls, far more comfortable than boys for me. For many reasons, always joked that I was surely a woman in a past life! At 54 I wear women’s clothes all the time, but ya can’t tell. I’m merely secure in my sexuality.
Anyway, bigots see and hear and experience what I have, think there’s some bizarre agenda that will convert people. How to fight back?
My best friend used to think homosexuality was a choice. Really! Asked him, “OK. You were no doubt as horny as I was at 14. Tell me about making your choice. You could go either way, right? What influenced your decision?”
LOL, poor guy went from being a conservative Southern Baptist to a lefty atheist! I ruined him over the years. :)
LETS FUCKING GOOO. It’s good to see actual data about the improvement in homophobia, because a non-insignificant amount of people think that it starts to reverse, although the graph only goes to 2022.
because a non-insignificant amount of people think that it starts to reverse
They not only think, there is hard evidence lgbtqi+ acceptance is (slowly) diminishing in a lot of western countries. Basically the same countries as where the (far-)right is on the rise.
That’s bummers
I’m 99% sure it does after 22. What the fuck good is data that predates our fascist regime?
Here’s a 10-year time window from the US.
Things can change. They can change quickly. Don’t lose hope.
Says they asked people to rate on a scale of 1-10 whether they think homosexuality can always be justified, never be justified, or something in between.
I am so very curious what anyone who answered something in between meant by that. What does it mean to only be half homophobic?
I feel like the question is rooted in the era leading up to 1984.
“Justified”? Like, “explain yourself!” Justified? It seems like a question designed to be decisive and possibly leading. To me.
“Do you feel putting pineapple on pizza is always justified?” Sure sounds like the person posing the question has an agenda, huh? (Yum, btw.)
Maybe someone else can justify the way it’s worded.
I could justify saying either end of the spectrum in favor of homosexuality.
It’s rarely justified in that it should not have to be justified at all. It exists; get over yourself.
It’s always justified because it’s a natural ocurrence and nobody should have a word on who other people love.
I’m sure a hateful person could have equal and opposite ideas about any choice given.
So yeah… The phrasing of the survey is terrible and doesn’t necessarily tell you anything.
It’s rarely justified in that it should not have to be justified at all. It exists; get over yourself.
It’s always justified because it’s a natural ocurrence and nobody should have a word on who other people love.
Pretty even take. Surveys are hard, and as you said, phrasing is everything.
Could also be interesting what shape the change took. Is it a change in the proportion of people who select 1 and 10? Is is basically normally distributed but the mean shifts? Or both the mean and the variance go down?
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Honestly, they’re probably thinking about wartime or being in prison or something where the options are homosexuality or celibacy
How could you believe that homosexuality is “rarely” justified? Being gay is a sin but it’s ok if he’s like SUPER hot
It’s the “hot lesbians in my area” exception.
Yea I thought that was funny.
In reality, I guess it’s some bigoted view on homosexuality. Like “it can be OK if they are monogamous, secretive, don’t flount it, respect gender norms, stay far from children, and tried to not be gay for long time before giving in”. Probably.
As a gay I totally feel this is a valid thing. I’ll translate to 2025 speak:
- Never justified - have a single gay thought and go to hell
- Rarely justified - you can be gay but look straight and never hold hands.
- Sometimes justified - i don’t mind people being gay as long as they don’t touch me
- Mostly justified - people should be themselves, but don’t be weird, don’t wear all-leather in public
- Always justified- you be you gurl
I guess we’ll never know, since those numbers were combined for the answer (“never or rarely”) or the person writing this article combined the results of those two answers, idk, didn’t read the whole thing
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They did briefly go lighter, then back to darker. One step forward, one step back, lol.
On a more sobering note, it is worrying to see colors going darker again. While my country isn’t perfect, I still feel lucky to be born here instead of a country where things essentially never change due to dictators.
Squirrely Dan?
everyone should be free to decide for themselves who they are attracted to.
I can decide that?! How can I do that?
Press restart, click yes when asked if you want to delete saved data
Now if the same could be said for trans people…
To lazy to back up with data, but this shows The Netherlands as the least homophobic country yet at the same time acceptance of queer people went down again this year. They poll every year and the last few years haven’t been pretty. There has been pushback from people fighting the woke virus (whatever that is), though happily not as hard as in the US. Believe we rank like 15th in the world right now, despite being the first country to legalise gay marriage 2 decades ago.
Similiar in Germany. We have more and more Nazis protesting during pride events.
Don’t forget the fascists in our government that want to put trans people in a register.
Fuck you Alexander Dobrindt, you are at fault for my Reddit account being permabanned
In Europe that’s mostly biological progress as the old timers are jumping into the box. Not sure why it’s still significantly more in the US. Lack of education and religious influence probably?
Poor China is just a flat line.
