What caused the shift in public opinion when it comes to homosexuality?

Most of our social politics is framed in terms of a discernible "us" hating, harassing and humiliating a detestable "them." This is particularly true for the dominant society; wealthly, aged and white people.

In the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's, people started to come out of the closet and that did two things. It humanized gay people. When a beloved celebrity or family member comes out of the closet, you realize that not all gays are perverts, weirdos and latent child molesters who cruise seedy downtown book stores and theaters. Second and more cynically, coming out of the closet demonstrated the randomized nature of homosexuality. A rich and white couple knows it will have a rich and white baby so they are fine with criminalizing being black and poor but the fact that their children might be gay forces them to at least oppose the criminalization of homosexuality.

It is great that we decriminalized homosexuality (in 2003 as a result of a Supreme Court decision) and made Gay Marriage the law of the land (This year as a result of a Supreme Court decision) but we, as Americans, should not congratulate ourselves too much. Not too long ago, we were just like Russia or Iran or Uganda and we only have grudgingly decided to treat gay people like human beings because homosexuality transcends race and social class.
 
Rexanglorum said:
Most of our social politics is framed in terms of a discernible "us" hating, harassing and humiliating a detestable "them." This is particularly true for the dominant society; wealthly, aged and white people.

In the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's, people started to come out of the closet and that did two things. It humanized gay people. When a beloved celebrity or family member comes out of the closet, you realize that not all gays are perverts, weirdos and latent child molesters who cruise seedy downtown book stores and theaters. Second and more cynically, coming out of the closet demonstrated the randomized nature of homosexuality. A rich and white couple knows it will have a rich and white baby so they are fine with criminalizing being black and poor but the fact that their children might be gay forces them to at least oppose the criminalization of homosexuality.

It is great that we decriminalized homosexuality (in 2003 as a result of a Supreme Court decision) and made Gay Marriage the law of the land (This year as a result of a Supreme Court decision) but we, as Americans, should not congratulate ourselves too much. Not too long ago, we were just like Russia or Iran or Uganda and we only have grudgingly decided to treat gay people like human beings because homosexuality transcends race and social class.
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BlackIntellect said:
When it became clear that it was going to come down to either them or blacks getting rights.
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As a black man this is such a pathetic mentality. This some loser ****. Admitting that you took a L to homosexuals about rights? After centuries of slavery and fighting for freedom, civil rights, and equality that's just some bull **** I can never agree with.

The more I see black ppl pit our struggle against gay ppl the more I :smh:
 
a blinkin said:
 Hopefully this topic can go off without a hitch.
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I was just thinkin about this also, i too have no idea.
 
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Yeah he did. Just like you did. Before it was other ppl comparing the two but now I'm seeing more black posters on this site compare which is some loser ****.

Steady complaining about agendas, propaganda in the media and w/e else failure talk. I wish yall weren't black when yall be on that ****.
 
We live in an age where information is free flowing. Where being ignorant for no damn reason is not being tolerated. THATS why there is a shift in EVERYTHING. You don't just see this in the gay community, it is happening EVERYWHERE.
 
People realizing some of the people they love are homosexuals and seeing they are still human beings and nothing changed about them.
 
Master Zik said:
BlackIntellect said:
When it became clear that it was going to come down to either them or blacks getting rights.
Click to expand...
As a black man this is such a pathetic mentality. This some loser ****. Admitting that you took a L to homosexuals about rights? After centuries of slavery and fighting for freedom, civil rights, and equality that's just some bull **** I can never agree with.

The more I see black ppl pit our struggle against gay ppl the more I :smh:
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The worst part is him separating black and gay like there aren't black gay people experiencing both :lol:
 
a blinkin said:
Beatings, arrests, public shaming, etc. we're the norm throughout the 20th century.
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It's still the norm in a lot of the world today.


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And these are just the examples that I felt were safe enough to post on NT. I'm not accusing you of this, but a lot of people seem to think that the gay plight ended last June.
 
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BlackIntellect said:
I'm glad you care about black gays, the gay community doesn't. 
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Yikes

Racism within the gay community?
"You can't sit with us because we're white gay and you're black gay"?
Does this exist?
Are white gay people looked at differently than black gay people?
 
Master Zik said:
As a black man this is such a pathetic mentality. This some loser ****. Admitting that you took a L to homosexuals about rights? After centuries of slavery and fighting for freedom, civil rights, and equality that's just some bull **** I can never agree with.

The more I see black ppl pit our struggle against gay ppl the more I
mean.gif
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What? I'm not comparing any struggle vs anything. I'm simply answering OP's question.

The gay moment made enormous strides following the civil rights movement of the 60's, and they def benefited from the movement, when it came time to take the fight out of the courtroom and start addressing the subtle racism that had become normative in American culture following the reforms of the 60's and 70's. The gay movement become the focal point of the media. 

You the type to name call, so please act accordingly when talking to an adult.
 
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BlackIntellect said:
What? I'm not comparing any struggle vs anything. I'm simply answering OP's question.

The gay moment made enormous strides following the civil rights movement of the 60's, and they def benefited from the movement, when it came time to take the fight out of the courtroom and address the subtle racism that had become normative following the reforms of the 60's and 70's. The gay movement become the focal point of the media. 
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It's funny because you think this is true.
 
FlyNY said:
Yikes

Racism within the gay community?
"You can't sit with us because we're white gay and you're black gay"?
Does this exist?
Are white gay people looked at differently than black gay people?
Click to expand...
I was living in California during prop 8, and while I can't speak for any community, a lot of the reporting coming out was stating how black gays felt that when they tried to open dialogue about the additional struggles that blacks would go through they were not being heard in the gay community. 
 
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i never had problem with homosexuality no homo

and when i first went to where youre from OP i believe youre from ATL right?

i never seen so many homosexuals and ****s before, especially black people, i even got hit on my damn self

after that first trip to ATL and Lenox mall on a Friday night I said to myself......ok many people are gay maybe the 1 in every 5 number is true this was back in 2010

from there social media emerged a lot an as well as MTV and TV in general

so yea

so my answer is TV and Fashion these days
 
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Aziz spoke to this on Master of None. About the hierarchy of civil struggles.

The problem is that we are trained to think we can only deal one struggle at a time.
 
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