Not sure if this is the right place for this. Something my girlfriend and I have discussed is legalization vs normalization. For instance, it's legal to marry in our state, but we are not comfortable being out in public because lesbians are not a "normal" occurrence in town. When I'm on my own (distance relationship) I question my sexuality because I'm surrounded by "straight culture" and it's as if being gay isn't a thing that exists. I was coming up on a panic attack until I logged in to ec and started reading and posting. Interacting here makes me feel normal and helps me find confidence in my identity and my feelings for my girlfriend. I get tired of straight people acting like legalization magically makes everything okay, and suddenly everyone in a legalized state is going to feel comfortable with expressing themselves. That's not how it works. Does that make sense? Thoughts? If I had money I'd make some "normalize gay" t shirts, but alas the life of an unemployment college student.
I'm honestly quite sceptical of assimilation. I think the heterosexual, cisgender, binary, monogamous assumptions which underpin society are fundamentally flawed, and should be resisted, rather than changing ourselves to become acceptable to "straight culture". Yes, the society I'm currently in has proven itself more or less capable of accepting a monogamous gay couple who conform to typical gender roles and presentation, and are cisgender. Which leaves everyone else out in the cold. What I'm trying to say is, yes, there is a difference between legalisation and normalisation. But I think we're going about it the wrong way.
This. No, it doesn't "fix" everything, but it's a step in the right direction. I think this is why the anti crowd fights so hard against legalization of anything that doesn't fit with their world view, because they don't want normalization to occur. There's still a long way to go, but I've seen a lot of progress in my lifetime.
