Do you think there will ever be a day when we don't have to come out?

I thought the world was like this when I was a kid. I discovered gay people existed by meeting a married lesbian couple. Since no one made a big deal of it, I assumed it wasn't a big deal. I also didn't know about sexuality labels or homophobia. I also planned to marry a woman instead of man because it seemed like a good alternative and I knew it was an option. I didn't tell anyone because I didn't think it was a big deal.

 

I really hope so, but probably not.
Hetrosexism runs so rampet in our society that I'll take at least a decade to die off, if it ever dies off.

 

I don't think there will be. I would love to be proved wrong though.

 

Probably not in my lifetime.

 

I'd like to live and see a time when it's not necessary to come out. But...I'm not sure that day will ever come. Oh, yes, we are moving in a direction where the world is more accepting each year. But one thing seems unlikely to change: most people will be straight, and so the likelihood is the greatest that any given person will date members of the opposite sex. So some coming out will still be needed, at least as far as saying, "I'm a guy who dates other guys." Or "I'm a woman who dates both men and women." However, I hope that there will come a time when this information will be received as "no big deal." Just like telling someone "I'm left handed." Or "I have blue eyes."

 

I think there'll always be a need to come out because, unless you were dating someone of the same sex at present, people won't necessarily know your sexual orientation because it is not self-evident like other biological factors. That said, I hope that in the future coming out is not seen as a grand revelation that marks a person's identity.

 

Probably not, considering the majority are straight

 

I don't so much forsee a day where where we don't have to come out at all. What I mean is I think we will always have to let people know our preferences in so much as to find partners for ourselves of the same orientation where they could be our partners.

What I would like to see is the day where it is not a big deal in the slightest and you could just tell everyone and they would just accept it. As such, there would be no need for further discussion or explanation as it was just considered a normal variety of orientation to everyone.

I hope that makes sense. I may not have worded it very well, but hopefully you get what I mean.

Happy days

 

When I think of how much has changed in just the past ten years, this is really something I'm optimistic about. When I was in high school, gay marriage was considered so polarizing and contorversial that it was one of two topics we weren't allowed to choose for our persuasive presentation. The other one was abortion. My friends and I were practically radicals for saying that it's a private issue between consenting adults, and not a place for state interference. And now there's a lesbian couple on Gray's Anatomy, my mom's favorite talk show host is very publicly gay, and even my dad can see how hypocritical it is that no one's ever described as "openly straight". I could totally see, within another generation, coming out losing its significance. I can imagine a world where it's just a matter of saying, "I like boys" or "well I usually prefer girls" when the situation calls for it, and it would hardly be any different than telling someone what kind of restaurants you prefer.

 

I'll accept the fact that it will not become an issue but yes for the sake of finding a significant other you will have to probably tell people that you're gay or not (or trans I guess too...).

The better question is "will being LGBT not be an issue at some point"?

 

Eh, if that day comes when I'm still around, I'll be some old crank wheeling around in my nursing home.

I mean, I dunno. Like the idea but I imagine to some degree (especially if you're trans), then you'd still have some form of coming out. But hopefully coming out will be less so a deal- just another thing like 'oh, i like that kid at school'.

I can definitely see being gay/lesbian/bi as being a non-issue in the next few decades. It'll just be little Timmy saying he likes little Johnny and that'll be that. Being trans, since it tends to imply a physical change, will probably never be a totally minor issue but hopefully it'll be less like "oh my god, if you transition, I'm losing a kid" but moreso, "oh? Well, I had no idea. Let's talk about this and I want to let you know I accept you no matter what"

 

I'm not out, but I make little comments to slip the seed into people's mind - or sometimes I'm completely obvious and some people still don't get it. I think we just need to maybe use gender neutral terms until we're ready to come out - I've gotten to the stage where even my mum talks about 'partners' or 'the person you fall in love with' instead of boyfriends and husbands - I have only ever outright told one person, and that was correcting her when she thought I was bi, yet at least about 40 people know - I try to get them to figure it out for themselves so it's not such a big deal.

 

Now, I think people will always have to come out.... but I hope one day that who they love and who they are will not be an issue.

 

I doubt it. I believe that there will be an acceptance in society one day, but since heterosexuality is the "generic" label, it'll stay that way. o3o

 

No I mean even if somehow the world accepted gay people, it's not like people themselves would change so everyone's bisexual (or Pansexual etc etc). I think it's possible that one day coming out gay isn't a big deal and is as casual as saying it over breakfast, but I don't think that would happen in my lifetime either.

 

But it wouldn't be a huge leap to say that in the right situation, anyone can be potentially fluid. Especially in a very accepting imaginary society, it could be more and more normal to have casual relationships with more than one gender, and then say, "no, really I'd prefer to be with x." And have it not be a matter so much of assigning oneself a fixed and permanent identity-category, but of stating what you like, and it's open to change if it does, and if it doesn't, that's fine.

 

I definitely believe it's possible, one day. I mean, just look how far LGBTQ equality has come on the last few decades alone. Granted, we still have a ways to go, but I don't see anything but progress in our future.

I like to think that a good majority of the population doesn't fall into the 100% Hetero box or the 100% Homo box or the 50/50 box, but that everyone just falls somewhere on a sliding scale. That's part of the reason I prefer to be labelled as "queer" rather than "lesbian", because it allows for a bit more of a degree of freedom.

That being said, perhaps one day we'll live in a world where people don't have to define themselves with static labels, and maybe everyone would be more open to the idea of fluidity. Maybe we'll have people that would've previously identified as straight instead coming out as something more like 92% straight. Even so, the world would still be hetero-leaning for the most part, so we'd likely still have to deal with assumptions.

Still, I like to believe that it's not impossible.

 

PREACH! :icon_bigg