Has it gotten easier?

Well I can't exactly speak from experience, but as a modern gay man I imagine it has. My guess would be that is due to the fact that there are simply more of us around these days (or at least more out LGBT people out there) so we feel a bit less like freaks of nature living in a heterosexual world.

I have no idea how long it will be until coming out isn't such a big thing anymore. In a way I think it already isn't as big as it used to be. I guess it varies from person to person. And if you live in a smaller area then it may still be a bigger deal to the people around you.

 

I would say definitely. My mother always says we have it easier now than 20 years ago. And I'd have to agree. I mean places in Europe, all of Canada and some states let gays marry and that was pretty much nonexistent 20, even 10 years ago. So even though there's a way to go, I can confidently say we are in a better place right now and hopefully moving onto to even better.

 

i think the laws changing for us has made it easier. BUT.... i hate to say it but socially there is still alot of inbuilt homophobia that does exists. I like to think of it like a ball where the edges are changing but the core of the ball is still what it always was and will take a while to change.

 

Hell yes! When I was growing up, I could not point to a gay role model. Celebrities would not think of coming out because it would have ruined their careers. There was no such thing as civil unions or domestic partnership benefits. The concept of gay marriage was not even on the horizon. Gay bashings were more common, and the police did not care. There were almost no laws on the books protecting gay people. In most jurisdictions, you could be fired for being gay, with no legal recourse. There were no GSA’s at schools, and few gay support groups anywhere.

Anita Bryant was on her rampage against gays when I was a kid. Openly anti-gay sentiment was everywhere. Nobody seemed to challenge this hate-speech. This made a huge impact on me. I stayed in the closet until I was over 40.

I think things will continue to get better for people coming out. While I can’t say that the day will come within my lifetime where it will be no big deal, I am hopeful that it is not too far down the road.

 

Though I can't speak from experience but things have definitely gotten better, I swear I don't even think gay people even existed before the 1950s (well of course we did but we were like kept in secrecy). With the exception of Desi Arnaz (Lucile Ball's Husband, he was bi) I can't think of one LBGT figure from then. I also think it depends on where you are, for some places it could be a couple a decades until full acceptance and where as places like the U.S. it will probably take another century and a half before we get full acceptance.

 

In a general, broad context, it has gotten easier to be LGBT. Like s5m1 said, there were significantly fewer LGBT people who were out when he was growing up (in the 70's/80's?). I was just a baby/little kid in the 80's, so I can't really speak from experience about how it was back then. I've read and heard lots of stories of closeted guys cruising parks and other public places at night, or going to great lengths to hide their true selves. I think we've come a long way- although we've still got a ways to go. More and more kids are coming out in high school (or even in middle school), which is definitely encouraging to see. Heck, I went to a haunted house with some friends in October (in a conservative southern town) and saw two high school-aged guys holding hands- no one said a word Seeing things like that really gives me hope. But like I said, we still have a long ways to go. You can still be fired or be denied housing for being gay in my state (and in a lot of other states), hate crimes still happen (sometimes in the most liberal of places- like NYC or MA), and people still discriminate against LGBT people in more subtle ways. This past semester, I still didn't feel comfortable coming out to anyone I worked with in the practical portion of my training- especially those whom I knew were religious/conservative. But I think we're on our way to living in a world (at least in the US) where, if someone says they're gay, then most people will say "So? What difference does that make?"