Growing up in the mid 90s, I remember a local controversy. A high school teacher told his class he was gay (mentioned that gay men like him were killed in the holocaust, that was literally it). Created a huge uproar, lots of parents wanted him fired. A year ago, that incident felt like a foreign country to me. Really thought we advanced well beyond that. But now we have "Don't Say Gay" bills that are trying to push us back 25+ years.
So what's different? Personally, I think basically no one over 65 right now in Amerikkka has changed their minds about LGBT issues. In the mid 90s, it was still socially acceptable for adults to talk about homosexuality being a "sin" and calling gay men deviants, pedophiles, etc. A very large number of the over 40 crowd then had absolutely despicable views about LGBT. Over the years, they found more social ostracism, anger and outright rejection from their family directed at them. This culminated in that one landmark scotus decision in 2013 that made gay marriage legal. But the boomers never changed their minds, they just learned to keep their mouths shut. In the face of white conservatives losing their grip on power and waning privilege and respect, they got more insular and dejected.
Then the Trump movement came along. Trump taught white conservatives to fight back. He taught them if you're willing to wear the black hat and be the people everyone else hates, you can actually turn back the clock. Let them hate you, they'll be forced to bend the knee to your political power. Who cares if your kids won't let you see your grandkids anymore? You have your like-minded Facebook friends. You have QAnon. You have power again. And that's all you need.
The death rattle of white evangelical conservatism is gonna get way worse, IMO. They are primed to follow - and I'm not exaggerating - a fascist as evil as Hitler if it means we are all forced at gunpoint to bend the knee to them.
I think you've been living in a bubble where virulent, violent homophobia isn't normalized. If the electoral map is red homophobic social violence is normal and actual physical violence is a real and constant threat. If you live where it's blue that's still true but you can find bubbles where you mostly don't have to deal with it on a daily basis.
Growing up in the mid 90s, I remember a local controversy. A high school teacher told his class he was gay (mentioned that gay men like him were killed in the holocaust, that was literally it). Created a huge uproar, lots of parents wanted him fired. A year ago, that incident felt like a foreign country to me. Really thought we advanced well beyond that. But now we have "Don't Say Gay" bills that are trying to push us back 25+ years.
So what's different? Personally, I think basically no one over 65 right now in Amerikkka has changed their minds about LGBT issues. In the mid 90s, it was still socially acceptable for adults to talk about homosexuality being a "sin" and calling gay men deviants, pedophiles, etc. A very large number of the over 40 crowd then had absolutely despicable views about LGBT. Over the years, they found more social ostracism, anger and outright rejection from their family directed at them. This culminated in that one landmark scotus decision in 2013 that made gay marriage legal. But the boomers never changed their minds, they just learned to keep their mouths shut. In the face of white conservatives losing their grip on power and waning privilege and respect, they got more insular and dejected.
Then the Trump movement came along. Trump taught white conservatives to fight back. He taught them if you're willing to wear the black hat and be the people everyone else hates, you can actually turn back the clock. Let them hate you, they'll be forced to bend the knee to your political power. Who cares if your kids won't let you see your grandkids anymore? You have your like-minded Facebook friends. You have QAnon. You have power again. And that's all you need.
The death rattle of white evangelical conservatism is gonna get way worse, IMO. They are primed to follow - and I'm not exaggerating - a fascist as evil as Hitler if it means we are all forced at gunpoint to bend the knee to them.
I think you've been living in a bubble where virulent, violent homophobia isn't normalized. If the electoral map is red homophobic social violence is normal and actual physical violence is a real and constant threat. If you live where it's blue that's still true but you can find bubbles where you mostly don't have to deal with it on a daily basis.