Have we taken a step back from achieving equality?

A lot of people thought that the struggle for LGBTQ rights stopped with the Obergefell ruling which legalized marriage equality in all 50 states, and US territories and commonwealths. The people who think that just because two people can put rings on their fingers means that the fight for equality has stopped when there are still 29 states where you can be fired or evicted from a house for being LGBTQ, there are hate crimes against the community and trans people and especially trans women of color being murdered at an alarming rate shows me that the people who say the fight is over need to be shown that the fight indeed is not over.

 

I think, like every aspect of evolution, these things come in fits and starts. Certainly we could take a step back here or there but, as long as these things are visible, it will continue to get better. That's kind of the paradoxical nature of the media: it simultaneously keeps the hate visible while making it look a lot worse than it is. I honestly think, overall, we are much, much closer to equality (and I see it gaining speed) than we were even 10 years ago.

I just try to think of the pushback from people as growing pains. Yeah, it is an adjustment and, yeah, people are going to have a problem but we're just growing and that can hurt sometimes. Seems a fair reaction (though I don't condone the hate, of course, just providing a rationale.)

 

With every action, there is an equal reaction. The vocal minority is very loud because they are losing their fight against LGBT rights. Right after the Obergefell ruling, the acceptance rate for gay marriages seemed to spike down in the polls, but that was just because it was such a big change. It seems a year later things have evened out a bit and now we're back on track to pushing for more acceptance. I guess since fire and brimstone haven't fallen from the sky yet, people are beginning to take a lighter tone of LGBT people.

Also, the younger generation typically is more accepting of LGBT people. As far as people my age goes, I know many Republicans who are okay with gay marriage. Some even went as far as talking on social media about how great the Obergefell ruling was. All it takes is time and a little bit of advocacy.

 

The couple in Finding Dory are ambiguous, they could be lovers, cousins, friends ... I think it's up to the individual child or adult whose watching it. [Unless more information is given when it comes out, it's just on the trailer for now].

Maybe the parents just don't know how to explain it to their child, since they've probably never been in a same-sex relationship they wouldn't know how beyond the basic ''girl loves girl and boy loves boy''. In that case, I'm sure there's information already on the information about how to talk to kids about people who love the same-sex if they've been asking.

But yes, I think we have taken a step back in achieving equality; and now focusing much more on diversity [amoungst all groups].

Quote ''Idiots about changing social values''

- There are also anti-religious [different from atheist] idiots who insist every religious person is homophobic/racist/sexist etc. I mean, one's belief about a magic man in the sky (i.e. God(s)) does not automatically dictate their belief on someone else's biology.

Bottom line: communication is in order.

I mean, freedom of speech, right? As long as you're not being an [for a lack of politer word] asshole about it. So why not get the Pope and Barack Obama to sit down and talk about gay et al. rights. I'm sure those two will have a much more structured arguments (whether or not you agree with their views) that protesters on the streets.

 

I don't think we have taken a step backwards and I think it would be wrong to assume that a screeching minority are in any way representative of mainstream opinion. We have made huge strides forward in the last ten years, but in so doing we have offended the sensibilities of some vocal people on the Christian right, who have adopted a siege mentality. The fact that these people have a platform for their narrow-minded views can sometimes give the impression that we have stalled, or are going backwards, but it's really not the case at all.

Of course, we have a long way to go to achieve full equality and there are many battles to be won, especially in parts of the United States, but don't be disheartened. The tide has turned in our favour and we should fight on with confidence.

 

Gay and lesbian rights are leaps and bounds ahead of where they were 20 years ago, but true equality has yet to be achieved. Even white heteronormative women are socially treated as lesser then men. Then we have ethnicity. And religion. So true equality seems out of reach by the nature of the world, but regressing? No.

But if you think it's bad for cisgender gay people... try being transgender.

 

Nah, not really a step back. That being said, there has been quite a bit of understandable naïvete abuzz since the marriage ruling in the US; that now there is equality. Equality has not been achieved, not even close. Equity has been furthered, I would say, but no, certainly not equality. Equality is quite an abstract idea, anyway. It's like, if heterosexual and homosexual, cisgender and transgender, etc., are afforded 10 units of respect per capita, without irregularities, that's equality, which isn't really, like, realistic. If the former groups are afforded 10 while the latter is afforded 9, that's equity. For justice to be grasped, however, equality is a more prudent goal than equity in my opinion.

 

I think that although we may not be taking steps backward, there are people upset about us moving forward, and just want to go back to the way it was. Personally, I think the past is overrated.

 

This is a fine example of taking steps back. /smh

 

I'd say yes. Maybe it is because more people are becoming aware of queer and trans issues because of media and so the shitheads are panicking and trying to stop it and make their dumb opinions heard. Like the dam of invisibility is breaking and all the queer is beginning to break out and the shitheads are trying desperately more than ever to re piece back the rock. But ultimately the water will overwhelm them and all the queerness will come flooding over the banks and fill all the rivers and it will keep getting better.

 

I, personally, don't see anything having changed, but I'm going to echo the sentiments of everyone else in this thread: that while we have achieved marriage equality, there is still an awfully-long way to go. The stigma still remains, too many people correlate HIV/AIDS with being a "gay disease;" mainstream discussions on domestic violence almost-exclusively focus on heterosexual couples; not all U.S. states or countries permit for gay and lesbian adoption (my state, Pennsylvania, just announced yesterday that they are going to officially-recognize lesbian couples as two mothers on a child's birth certificate); and so much more. I don't see the entire Planet fully accepting us for quite some time, yet.

 

A Disney film shows a same-sex couple (ambiguous or no) in a major motion picture, and you think we're going backwards because *some people are unhappy about it*?

 

I agree with those who are saying no. We have not taken a step backward. We have a taken a big step forward and it has been met with an equally strong reaction (as is the wont of nature). Sometimes need to be pushed forward aggressively. "Wait and bide time" is not always the solution to achieve equality. Yes, initially, there is a strong backlash, but eventually the masses come to accept the change and we wonder how things could ever have been different. Is there a serious push to take the vote away from women? Or to re-segregate? Issues that once divided the nation have become non-issues, as will this one eventually.

 

I feel that homophobia will stop being a thing in at least one or two generations from now. Once the majority will support equality, the minority who won't will suffer the social stigma and be forced to accept that they're unreasonable. Sometimes you have to push evolution. Why? Because you can't ask from children raised by homophobic parents to have different opinions.

 

Perhaps you can enlighten me further with that profound statement. Let me explain mine in more depth, then perhaps you won't respond with a trite shake my head acronym.

While equal rights for people are not 100% equitable, gay marriage is becoming recognized around the world, but despite for America having black and white people being "equal" on paper it's not. But segregation is not something that is legal in the us. Therefore there is progression not regression. While homosexual people are not seen as 100% equal to heterosexual people the expansion of rights and privileges is a step forward.

 

Sometimes it works, other times their skulls are just too thick. I know it eventually worked on me, but I was questioning my "motivations" to be such anyway. Still, I'd probably still be acting like Westboro if someone hadn't of knocked some sense into me. Though I do regret still pretending to be homophobic for a year or two after, just so "they wouldn't stop liking me" but I was a kid I guess.

 

If Trump gets in, you're going to see some major steps back, with his plans to undo Obama's executive actions on trans rights, and appoint a justice, "in the mold of Scalia", to appease the right, and make it appear like it wasn't him who did the dirty work. And if Bader goes, we could see huge setbacks in terms of LGBT rights...

I think things are in a delicate place.

One thing I've learned over the years is that Republicans are mean, nasty horrid creatures who will stop at nothing to take away rights from those unlike themselves.

 

There were racists who responded violently to John Boyega being in Star Wars 7 but that doesn't mean race relations have gone backwards.