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Do we think in twenty years time, their will be later in life folk?

Discussion in 'LGBT Later in Life' started by Richie., Feb 24, 2014.

  1. Richie.

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    Do we think with the acceptance of gay folk there will be kids of today getting married even though they are gay?.

    I ask because I'm one of the youngest guys here, and most of you guys are of a certain age....

    I think there will less of a need to hide in the future right?
     
  2. skiff

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    Hi,

    Society swings between poles. Sometimes progress, sometimes backsliding, with slow overall progress.

    What you ask will occur but will take much longer than 20 years. You are only talking a single generation. It will take 2-3 generations for the closet to disappear like the ice-man.

    How many of the 50 US states have same sex marriage? How many would have it if courts were not FORCING them?

    It is one thing to change a law and another to change people's hearts. My best friend is an obvious minority and there are still places in the US his race makes him a target, forget sexuality. As long as there are institutions and theologies that teach hate there will be people closeted over race, sex, sexuality, belief, etc.

    Maybe 75-100 years if we are lucky.

    Tom
     
  3. Cool Bananas

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    It will still occur, some people will take a long time to accept that they could be gay, some will go through relationships with the opposite sex before they decide that maybe they could be gay.

    Met up with a group with gay members and there was 1 person in the group where someone made the comment that they didn't come out until they were 72.

    Some people are going to be more private and don't make friends easily or more likely that they just don't meet someone until that sets off a few bells in their mind that they could be gay.
     
  4. GayDadStr8Marig

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    When we look at the evolving theology in main-line patriarchal churches like Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran and others, their teachings have slowly eroded the stigma they used to attach to homosexuality; some more so than others. Then there are other main-line fundamentalists who have softened their public rhetoric a tad, but behind closed doors are just as homophobic today as ever and more than willing to foment political discord to stop the moral unraveling of society as they see it.

    Looking back at the last century there has been great progress, and it will likely continue; but I fear it will be more than the 75-100 years Tom mentioned, simply because so much of the anti-gay movement is rooted in the pulpits around the world. And that is something that cannot be simply legislated away; even if they are small-minded homophobic bigots, their attitudes are based on a religious belief and entitled to protection of the 1st Amendment, no matter how much we disagree with it. I do hope though, that as science is better able to help explain how being gay happens it will open the hearts and minds of religious people to see that we are not evil incarnate, just regular people like them who only want to find some to share their love.
     
  5. Choirboy

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    I think that the Later in Life section will be somewhat less populated than it is now, but I think that the ones who are here will probably need the support an acceptance of a place like EC far more than we do.

    The people in this section today went into the closet for assorted reasons. Some are here because their parents' religions or societal beliefs forced them there; some are here because they live in places that are not gay-friendly (I remember someone whose location was listed as "A damn tough place to be gay"); some feared AIDS; some saw so-called "stereotypical" gay behavior as representative of the community as a whole and thought they could never fit into it.

    While many religions still have a problem with gays, many are becoming less so than they used to be, and in some cases (like with us Catholics), there are definitely some realistic people saying "Yeah, this is what they SAY, but we don't agree". There are still parts of the country (and the world) that are definitely not gay-friendly, and plenty that could go either way, but in general there's somewhat more acceptance than there used to be, and certainly there are more gays in the media who are pretty well-known and accepted. AIDS is still a concern but prevention is well publicized and it's not the quick death sentence it was in the 1980's and 1990's. And while there are still plenty of gay stereotypes, there are also plenty of people who don't fit into them at all, so younger gay people are less likely to feel they have to conform to a specific behavior.

    So who's going to be in Later in Life in 20 years? The ones whose religion and region are the most directly and hatefully anti-gay. The ones who went into the closet, not because of general fears of society as a whole, but because of much more direct and tangible fear and persecution. The ones who completely and absolutely felt that being gay and in the gay community was something they could absolutely never accept, despite having more positive role models.

    A little dark for a Monday morning, I guess. But I think the people here in 20 years will be less in number, but they are going to come from much deeper in the closet and could be people even more wounded and fearful than many of us are.
     
  6. Reddy

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    There is also the problem of a lack of self-knowledge which leads to the closet. Some of us have become aware of our sexual orientation only after one or several failed relationships with the opposite sex.

    Social issues aside, this is one reason I think that the later-in-life crowd will continue to exist.

    "Know thyself" !
     
  7. Lilli

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    I really think educating kids that being gay IS normal will make a huge difference, so we should be seeing a significant increase in the acceptance of gays within a generation.

    It saddens me when I see even young people on these very forums refer to being gay as "not normal" in some way. That tells me that there is still a lot of work to be done.

    In CA we've gone from ratifying prop 8 in 2009 to trashing it in 2013. I believe that change was due at least in part to the internet and educating people. Things like the FAIR Education Act will also help.

    To offer some perspective though (and not in a good way, I suppose) in the US we had to legislate for things like integration yet we remain a segregated society.

    Civil Rights Project Reports Deepening Segregation and Challenges Educators and Political Leaders to Develop Positive Policies — The Civil Rights Project at UCLA

    ---------- Post added 24th Feb 2014 at 11:22 AM ----------

    What concerns me Richie is that you are in the UK and even YOU are concerned about this. Your country takes some aggressive action against those that provoke people to hate on gays.

    Street preacher arrested for 'homophobic' language - YouTube

    ^^ Warms my heart lol