Why Me!!!

[JakeBequette]

Fear would be part of it. A lot of it has to do with self-esteem

Fear is everything. Think about it, when you were growing up why were you uncomfortable with liking guys? It's not because you liked them, it's because you had been taught that you weren't supposed to and you were scared that you had something wrong with you.​

I do not agree that wha Brannie told you meant living in fear. He basically told you to come out when you feel comfortable with it

If a gay guy were truly uncomfortable with being gay plopping him down in a gay group would be like hell. Once he's in the gay group hes no longer fearful of what the people around him are thinking or what they might do, so he's more comfortable with it.​

 

[dynk]

I have been out all my life, and would never hang out with a gay group, I find them disgusting in public and very uncouth. They dish each other out, and every one else in sight.

All my friends are straight or bi-sexual and not a frivolous group, and all know I am fully out.

 

[Christopher123]

WHY DID I HAVE TO BE THE ONE TO GET BORN DURING THIS GENERATION?

You coulda been born 50 years ago.

Point? No matter how bad it seems, it can always be much worse.

And I honestly believe that homosexuality will never be fully accepted.

There will always be prejudice.

 

[gmoney]

Anyways, this thread isnt about my coming out. Its about if you agree that this generation is pretty much the turning point with homosexual acceptance in American society.

I don't know if this is the turning point or not, but I do see it as a very positive sign with many of today's mainstream not shutting us out like I saw when I graduated high school 26 years ago.

 

[JackFTwist]

WHY DID I HAVE TO BE THE ONE TO GET BORN DURING THIS GENERATION?!.

well, you might ask your parents how that happened...

 

[Christopher123]

Sorry, but if there's anything keeping a person from being who they are or doing what they want to do it's fear, not comfort.​

No, it's other PEOPLE.

If it weren't for the frickin generalizations and confining stereotypes, some of us wouldn't HAVE a problem with being who we are. We wouldn't HAVE to be afraid.

Society - them - is what makes people afraid.

Would you have a problem with standing up on a stage and announcing to a room of 500 people that you love pizza? Of course not. Because most people would agree with you and even those that don't particularly like pizza aren't going to call you names and beat your ass and make you feel ashamed of being who you are, they're just going to say, "Ewwww, gross! I'd rather eat a hamburger, but whatever floats your boat!"

You get up on a stage and announce to 500 people that you're a homosexual, you're gonna get teased, humiliated, poked fun at, outrage probably 3/4 of those people (or at least half) and possibly get beaten to a bloody pulp on your way home.

Yeah, the gays that have come out make things great. I agree. It puts that level of acceptance out there a little at a time. But there will NEVER be complete and total acceptance and bashing our fellow homosexuals only sets us back as caring and understanding people.

We can't bash our own. Because it only makes us appear, to others, just as fucking hateful as THEY are.

 

[JakeBequette]

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

-- Theodor Seuss Geisel

Link here.​

 

[Christopher123]

Link here.​

Very good quote, but easier said than done.

Sometimes those who matter to us that also happen to mind can make things very uncomfortable.

For example, my sister. She's one of those religious-type people who tells me she'll "deal" with it because she has to. But she doesn't agree with it and tells me, in so many words, I'm gonna burn in hell.

Does that matter to me? What she says?

Fuck yes, it matters to me. Maybe it shouldn't, but it does.

 

[josher]

Those of you under thirty cannot really fully comprehend how much the world has changed for gay people in the last forty years. When I was a child in the fifties NO ONE ever spoke publicly about homosexuality, though their was a very small gay liberation movement on the East and West coasts. The fact that EVERYONE now hears about gay people, our lives and our struggle for recognition and rights sometimes overwhelms me. It may take a generation or three, but it's clear near universal acceptance is coming.

 

[dynk]

 

[operafan]

Since I'm 60 and have lived through several generations, I would never have thought that I would live in a world where two Royal Mounted policemen would have been able to get married or two soldier in the Spanish army. Or when two men kissing affectionately on a show like "Brothers and Sisters" would not raise the ire of the religious right when they were virtually able to shut down a network when two guys were shown in bed side by side smoking after something was supposed to have happened between them.

Obviously, we have a long way to go. It's better and getting better. But when a school district defends the reading of the book "King & King" to its first graders because the school has a duty to talk about same sex families because gay marriage is legal in Mass. or "Time" magazine has a cover story about kids coming out earlier and earlier as gay teens then things are changing much for the better.

I'm glad to have lived long enough to have seen the changes. I hope I live long enough to see gay marriage in all 50 states.

 

[luminum]

I love a fight, so while it gets exhasuting, I'm thankful that I was born on the turn of the LGBT civil rights movement.

Strap on your boots and get ready for a fight

 

[backpacker]

I agree that society is going through a major change in acceptance of homosexuality. The changes in the last forty years have been remarkable, but let's not forget that we owe a debit of gratitude to all those that have forged the path for acceptance. Still much more work to be done, but I believe the hardest part is behind us (at least in the US). In some places around the world no real progress has been made and I truly feel for those people. I realize that people in those countries would be in grave danger if they tried to effect the type of changes that have occurred here. Hopefully some of the acceptance we have gained here can filter into those countries. I hope that I live to see the day when being gay is as acceptable as being left handed.

 

[just_mills]

I have gay friends...they don't act disgusting in public....

I'm with what Elvin said, on this one..
My gay friends (who cotch together) aren't publicly "disgusting" ...

Don't agree with what was said at all..


But back to the topic.. kind of..

I, too, am glad I was born into my generation. I wouldn't change it for the world.