What is really at stake? If you’re gay, how far do beg found “morally acceptable” by two-thirds of your fellow Amerins get you?
Contents:
- OP-ED: WHAT WE REALLY MEAN WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ACCEPTANCE OF GAY PEOPLE
- ACCEPTANCE OF GAYS SOCIETY VARI WILY
- TURNS OUT, BARBIELAND ISN'T AS GAY AS S QUEER FANS HAD HOPED
OP-ED: WHAT WE REALLY MEAN WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ACCEPTANCE OF GAY PEOPLE
* gay culture acceptance *
Thirteen votg members of the 118th Congrs intify as lbian, gay or bisexual – the hight number of openly LGB members history. A random sample of more than 1, 000 Amerins adults is asked whether “gay or lbian relatns” between nsentg adults are “morally acceptable or morally wrong.
ACCEPTANCE OF GAYS SOCIETY VARI WILY
My rearch has brought me face-to-face wh the heterosexual rints of urban gay districts, or “gayborhoods, ” of big Amerin ci. I’ve learned how fe the le is between progrs and prejudice, and how broad statistics about public opn nceal the subtle forms of discrimatn that now routely surface between gay and straight neighbors. The majory of the straight people that I’ve spoken wh durg my rearch said that they supported gay civil rights, felt a mon humany wh gay people (“we’re all jt people”) and had posive views about the tegratn of gay spac the cy (gayborhoods are “welg, ” “clive, ” and “open” environments where we n all “thrive together, ” I was told).
TURNS OUT, BARBIELAND ISN'T AS GAY AS S QUEER FANS HAD HOPED
Many of my terviewe who scribed themselv as “liberal” and “acceptg” of homosexualy remaed apathetic about the and nsequenc of social equaly. (Some also claimed to live among a “diverse” populatn, even though their lol gayborhood lacked racial or ethnic diversy.
)Some straight people saw themselv as “gay-bld, ” much like a whe person might say that she is “lorbld” toward race and racial discrimatn. But to say that beg gay is a “nonfactor” is strategic for straights; allows them to exempt themselv om polil engagement and material support. When I asked about this trend, a straight man told me that gays and lbians should “be happy” about , rather than focg so much on prejudice, discrimatn and equaly.