There's a very cool article I've read recently. It talks about how homosexuality is most likely to be viewed in the decades yet to come, specially, of course, in countries that are more tolerant of it, such as the United States, Argentina and Europe. The article is in Portuguese, so I sadly can't just paste the link here for you all to see. However, according to it, the progress in marriage equality and in the general awareness of the population about the existence of gays will tend to, already by the end of this decade, blur the lines between homosexual and heterossexual. Obviously, there will always be people who are attracted to only one gender, but there will be more freedom to navigate between the two in a relationship, or just for casual sex, without the stigma of being gay or straight creating a barrier for it. Therefore, people will tend to experience with different groups more, and eventually stop defining themselves as gay or straight. Specific gay bars will cease to exist, because everyone would be able to make out normally in a "straight" club, and overall coming out wouldnt even be necessary. Of course, this probably might not happen in the very near future, but I think theres a strong chance for it. In 50 years, maybe What do you all think?
..... as a linguist, no. i cannot see labels ever disappearing. every single word in every single language is technically a label for something, we just happen to view sexual/gender identities as more of a label than other words for some odd reason. i believe that words (ie. labels) change over time and some do indeed disappear with time, but i highly doubt that sexual and gender identity labels will ever completely disappear. just my opinion, though.
We still have labels for people who are right-handed, left-handed, and ambidextrous. My own opinion is that the eventual destination of all of these gay rights struggles will be that we treat sexuality the same way we treat handedness now. Since labels for handedness didn't disappear with normalization of handedness minorities, I don't think sexuality labels will disappear with acceptance and normalization, either.
I do feel that sexuality will be widely accepted as straight folks. Acceptance of the gay community is generally hallmarked by the legalization of same-sex marriage. Just last November, 3 states legalized same-sex marriage, bringing the total to 9 states. Massachusetts, USA is the first state to legalize it in 2004 and took 9 years for all of New England to legalize same-sex marriage. Iowa is now the first and only Midwestern State to legalize it in 2009 and New York is the only Non-New England state to legalize same-sex marriage. So yeah, another 50 years and America is officially LGBT tolerant, and that's including the conservatism of the southern states.
I think there will always be labels, and that's a good thing. Whether or not we will need to come out, as we do now, in the future, is a different question. I think that even when almost all consider being LGB normal, the labels will serve the purpose satisfying the human urge to classify everything categorically.
I think the future you describe is desirable, but not the removal of the words themselves. I mean, for the monosexuals who will presumably be in the minority, how would they express their preference?
Humans, by nature, like to categorize and label things. It makes it easier for us to understand the very complex world we live in. As such, I don't think we'll ever get rid of labels. The stigma that certain labels carry, yes; one day, being gay will simply tell other people that you like people of the same sex for romantic purposes and that will be it. But regardless, I don't think that labeling things, per se, will end.
First of all, I hate using the word 'label' and vastly prefer to refer use 'identity' instead, since the former has nothing but negative connotations. Secondly, objectively speaking, I suppose it's possible, but aside from the presumed widespread disappearance of bigotry and discrimination towards the LGBT* community, I personally don't find it especially desirable. Though like many others I wouldn't describe my sexuality as the defining aspect of myself, at least no more so than other things which are important to or which have impact on me [my personal interests, heritage, personality and so forth,] it is no less important in my eyes. As such, I greatly value knowing that I belong to some sort of community, and not just in regard to the LGBT*. Perhaps I put more emphasis on this than others since at times I still feel I don't really know myself, so the notion of being able to know, understand and embrace one's various identities is especially important to me.
It's an intresting concept but sadly no, i don't think that labels will ever go away, as said by others above we still have labels for people who are right and left handed and those have spanned many years so i doubt that anything will change
It's not gonna go away, but if the world has more knowledge on sexuality, then they wil see limitations into those identities as it does not describe all of them, thus less inclination to support sexuality labels. Most don't even know that there are so many different types of attractions and there are different reasons to have sex other than sexual attraction.
I hope not! I actually like some labels. I don't want them to disappear, because I think we'd end up in a really weird place. It's just how we handle them.
Yes! probably people will change their perception when they'll get used to it and that if there's too many homo will exist.
I totally agree, and if anything I actually think that there will end up being more labels as far as sexuality (and everything else) goes, as people strive further to define themselves from everyone else!... For example if you are bisexual, if you are mostly into the opposite sex, but occasionally like your own (which is me) there will be a certain label for that, compared to either of the other two alternatives (equally bi, or being more into your own gender). Labels will never cease to exist as the human race naturally wants to understand, define, and be more uniquely individual to those around them... while at the same time being just as accepted and the same. - We are a very complex creature, lol! :rolle:
I don't think so, since humans have a tendency to want to categorize one another (us vs them mentality), especially regarding minorities. On top of that, those who identify as LGBT probably won't be in such a hurry to throw away an important part of their identity, including the term that comes with it, not helped by the fact that homophobia is still quite common around the world, even in more liberal and accepting nations. The terms and associations themselves might change, but once an idea is accepted, a definition will have to exist and try to explain it.
