2011: A good year to be gay | LGBTQ+ rights | The Guardian

gay rights 2011

NBC Out reflects on the major legal, cultural, and historic LGBTQ events of the 2010 , cludg the legalizatn of gay marriage and DADT repeal.

Contents:

2011: AN EXTRAORDARY YEAR FOR GAY RIGHTS

From marriage equaly to the end of don't ask, don't tell, this has been an extraordary year. Here, Aaron Hickl, edor--chief of Out magaze, looks forward to the end of gay culture * gay rights 2011 *

This year was an extraordary one for many thgs — pecially gay rights. In September, the end of the ary's "don't ask, don't tell" policy allowed gay, lbian and bisexual people to serve openly.

'A Good Year To Be Queer' Among those appldg the recent stris gay rights is lumnist and activist Dan Savage, who told Sheir that was a "good year to be queer. "[Clton] stood up for half an hour and lectured world lears on the fact that gay rights are human rights, " Savage says.

He was standg next to a gay uple he didn't know, and one of the men asked Savage, "We're always happy for them, would kill them to be happy for ? After s which gay rights have polarised US opn, the untry barely shgged September when a two- old law prohibg gay men and women om servg openly the ary was fally repealed, promptg thoands of gay soldiers to post g-out vios on YouTube – jt one more example of how the web has transformed gay visibily.

2011: A GOOD YEAR TO BE GAY

2011 timele of major events LGBT (lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr) rights history, cludg homosexualy, gay marriage, gay adoptn, servg the ary, sexual orientatn discrimatn protectn, changg legal genr, donatg blood, age of nsent, and more. * gay rights 2011 *

To put that ntext, there are more people livg New York than the Netherlands, which 2001 beme the first untry to legalise same-sex stggle for marriage equaly has been one of the most bterly divisive issu Ameri, but after a seri of feats for gay-rights advot, the ti appears to be shiftg irrevobly their directn. In the 2004 electn, unr the keen enuragement of Karl Rove, no fewer than 11 stat passed ballot iativ banng gay marriage — a cynil get-out-the-vote ploy that helped swell Republin ranks at the pollg perceptn that marriage equaly was a poisoned pk chalice persisted up to the 2008 electn, when even Obama was reful to clarify that he wasn't favour of gay marriage, apparently heedg warngs om Bill Clton to give the issue a wi berth.

Yet this year's bat between the ragtag pack of Republin printial nome, the ual rhetoric nouncg gay marriage has been noticeably absent. Even Obama, facg prer odds for a send term, has said that he favours repealg the notor Defense of Marriage Act that has prevented feral regnn of gay marriag, even those performed stat where they are changed those few short years? In many ways the transformatn of attus has been ongog for s, accelerated large part by the impact of Aids, which renfigured gay inty around muny and relatnships.

In TV shows such as Glee and Morn Fay, gays are no longer ic stoog or punchl, their relatnships treated wh the same rpect as those of their straight unterparts. This was a quantum leap on 1990s shows such as Will & Grace, which the gay characters had the whiff of "nfirmed bachelors", to e the archaic phemism of obuary wrers, rarely prented functng relatnships, much ls young gay men and women today the ia that they will be able to marry and raise kids no longer sounds outlandish or ntroversial.

A VERY LGBTQ : GAY MARRIAGE, TRANS RIGHTS AND A 'RABOW WAVE'

They see gay upl gettg married stat such as New York and Massachetts.

They listen, alongsi their straight iends, to gay anthems by Lady Gaga, and watch popular gay-clive shows such as Te Blood. Most of all, they munite wh a diverse group of iends on Twter and Facebook, where gay and straight teens revel their shared cultural is all a long way om the wdowls gay bar wh the peephole the door Edburgh, where I first learned to socialise wh other gay people durg my first tentative steps out of the closet. Lookg back 's clear that this dramatic metamorphosis, om poppers to panis, reprented a broar shift gay culture, or – if you believe the mentator Andrew Sullivan – the "exorable evolutn" towards the end of gay culture self.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* GAY RIGHTS 2011

A very LGBTQ : Gay marriage, trans rights and a 'rabow wave'.

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