Do you imagine in 50 years time, coming out won't be such a big deal after all?

Given enough time, I see being queer getting the same reaction that being left-handed gets now: maybe a minor, "Oh, I didn't know," but that's it, and certainly no discrimination from most sane people.

 

Well, I think it will always be somewhat of a deal.

It won't be in about 99% of the cases, though. coming out to friends, acquaintances, neighbours... will probably be met by an "oh, interesting!" (in fact, that's already the most common reaction you're likely to get where I'm from).

To family and parents... it is probably going to get easier as they become more used to the possibility of family members or kids being gay.
At the same time, Parents do have a tendency to imagine their kids having a comfortable path through life. Married with kids, house, etc...
Being gay will always make that slightly harder just by dint of there not being that many gay people.

So even with the most accepting family in the world, there will be some worrying and fixed expectations to overcome.

All in all, it will still be massively easier, though, and even if the occasional bad reaction happens, it will still be massively less traumatic and stressful than it used to be.

 

I would love a world like this! It's brought a smile to my face imagining this world. I'm just picturing being all relaxed like "yeah I prefer guys to girls, it doesn't make me any different though." Ah, I wish we lived in that world now

 

50 years ago homosexuality wasn't even legal in the UK and now we have a Prime Minister who supports Gay Marriage. I think for the most part, my generation is very accepting, and in 50 years time we'll be in our 70's/80's. I'm quietly hopeful that by then it will be a non-issue, just like the way that the fact a quater of the kids in my year were mixed race was a non-issue, when 50 years ago their parents would have been looked down upon.

 

I don't know, but I'd love to and whatever I could do to make it happen, I will.

 

I definitely think this is going to happen, I think it's inevitable in fact.

 

Im a middle aged man (51) who in the last 25 years have seen a HUGE change in social mores with regard to acceptance. I came out to my children and exwife a month ago and my kids were like, "hey you are who you are, we love you NO less and just want you to be happy"!!!!, blew me away.....Soo, most definately, each generation will become more tolerant........

 

I think so interracial couples are nothing now andback in the day that was the big thing. I would love if everyone would be all oh your LGBT that is cool good for you.

 

I think it will either become something really natural because of over population making it much more common or it will go to how some countries in Africa are today where they kill people who are gay.

 

Yeah, pretty much this. Where I (mostly) live a lot of people actually want a gay brother or sister, because it's interesting and a positive thing. Ideally, though, in a couple of years if won't be "interesting" anymore either.
And I'm pretty sure the places in the world where it's still a big deal will change as well. I'm really optimistic about it.

 

OMG Owen.....I'm gay and left handed what does that mean? Scarry!

 

There is a correlation between being left handed and gay, look it up. I'm not even joking.

 

Funny you two bring that up, I'm left-handed as well.

What I really wish for is that one day people will be so comfortable with sexual orientation that big "coming outs" won't be necessary anymore. Don't know if that will ever happen, perhaps due to how our society is, I don't know. But things have definitely become a lot better in the past few decades, so the future looks promising

 

That actually happened to a friend of mine. Him and his parents never discussed sexuality apart from his parents showing their support whenever something about it was on tv or whatever. He didn't think it was necessary to come out, and when he got a boyfriend he just asked his parents if they'd like to meet his boyfriend, and they were like yeah sure!
They pretty much just knew without a doubt their son was gay, but never asked him because it wasn't a big deal to them anyway.., or to him. Pretty awesome haha.

 

I hope so, I imagine that's what it will be like. But life tends to be unpredictable.
So that, or we've all been blown up by then. :lol: :icon_sad:

Does this mean we will all come back to this thread fifty years from now and see how we felt as opposed to what is?

 

Hey maybe in 4 years they wont force the rules of christianity in non-christian people accept gay marrige and after like 10 or 20 more years well just be hanging around with our couples/husband/wife and it will be completely normal as it should be

 

I think in 50 years (or before), coming out won't be such a big deal for the LGB, but I'm honestly not sure about the T. They're entirely different scenarios, and as it is, the LGB is way ahead of the T in terms of acceptance.

 

First of all, Liz I love your optimism on the next four years I for one would love to see that happen. I don't know if it'll be like nothing at all to come out in 50 years but, give the progress made in the past 50 years, I do believe that it will be a lot easier and a lot of the stigma will be gone. It seems as though every generation is a little more open minded than the last, so I'm optimistic.

I think E speaks pretty accurately about T people. We're way behind, and I think that, aside from the fact that cases like ours are a different animal than sexual orientation, part of the driving force for T people is to not be noticed and not stand out. I can't speak for all of us, but we want nothing more than to be recognized as our true gender and don't want to draw attention to what we were. Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals all have people out there who are very public and open and advocating for the whole. I'm not saying that there have never been, nor are there T people who are out there and willing to publicly fight for our cause, but they're so much more rare. I think that's one of the biggest issues we face as far as pushing our cause forward. I'm always willing to admit that I might be wrong, but I don't think I am. We don't have the visibility of the other members of our community because, on some level, we don't want it.

Sorry for sidetracking a little bit here. In terms of the original question, I do think conditions are going to be a lot better in 50 years. As somebody before me said, we'll have to come back and check this thread in 50 years to find out