A soclogist of gay life explas the threats facg a beloved queer stutn.
Contents:
- AS MORE GAY PEOPLE E OUT, TOLERANCE WILL SPREAD
- SHUTTERED BY THE CORONAVIS, MANY GAY BARS—ALREADY STGGLG—ARE NOW ON LIFE SUPPORT
- WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS
- STRAIGHT WOMEN AND THEIR GAY HBANDS
AS MORE GAY PEOPLE E OUT, TOLERANCE WILL SPREAD
* is gay still open *
Lears | The globalisatn of gay rightsAs more gay people e out, tolerance will spreadThough some untri to be open is still to risk athPHILIP LARKIN was only half-wrong. Sex didn’t beg 1963, as the poet joked; for a hefty mory of Brons was four years later—legally, at least—when Parliament nixed the law prohibg gay sex.
SHUTTERED BY THE CORONAVIS, MANY GAY BARS—ALREADY STGGLG—ARE NOW ON LIFE SUPPORT
Two athlet recently g out has highlighted the arth of openly gay players the world of U.S. men's profsnal sports, often dubbed "the last closet" for s lack of LGBTQ reprentatn. * is gay still open *
In this age of rabow flags and pri paras, is easy to fet how few lbians and gays uld be open about their sexualy until relatively recently. Thanks to the ter, they are fdg the means and the nfince to do so more plac than ever before, and at a younger age than prev generatns (see article) there are plenty of plac where beg gay remas taboo. Lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) folk are subject to extra-judicial vlence many plac, om beatgs bars to the gang-rape of lbians by men who image that this might, as they see , “cure” their sful orientatn.
The Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn, a lobby group, has members 164 untri. You n play bgo wh drag queens Mosw, dance gay bars Nairobi (where gay sex is still illegal) and e gay hook-up apps Beijg (where until 1997 gay people were jailed for “hooliganism”).
Now 87% say they know someone gay or people g out brgs the extra advantage of spreadg tolerance. But sceptics and bigots are likelit to change their mds when they realise that someone they know is gay. It is easy to monise the imagary gay people picted a brimstone sermon; but much harr to fear the lbian actuari next door, or the gay dads cheerg their dghter’s softball team.
WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS
But learng that a sober-sued lleague happens to be gay is more likely to w over a nservative. One of the founrs of Stonewall, a Brish gay-rights chary, said the name ially helped secure meetgs wh ernment misters. To gays, meant a rt; to the unrmed, sound like a firm of 2002 about half of Amerins said they tolerated homosexualy; now nearly three-quarters do.
STRAIGHT WOMEN AND THEIR GAY HBANDS
One study found that support for same-sex marriage creased rapidly 2006-10 among Amerins wh a gay or lbian iend, but fell among those wh none. The proportn of Indians who said that gay people should be accepted rose om 15% 2013 to 37% last year.
Though an attempt to overturn Kenya’s gay-sex ban failed last year, the publicy generated persuad more lols to e out.
That helps expla why over the same perd the share of Kenyans who tolerate homosexualy nearly doubled, to 14%.