Well, here we are again. It's Gay Pride month. If you are old and jaded, or for that matter young and jaded, your reaction is probably a sardonic "Oh, Whoopee-do." That is usually my first reaction too. But then I think about it for a while and end up deciding that gay pride is a pretty good idea.
Think back half a century. "When our American movement for full civil rights and equality for homosexuals got launched fifty-six years ago, we had a huge range of basic problems to tackle. We were denounced as immoral and sinful. We were punished as criminals and lawbreakers. We were labeled 'sick' and needing a 'cure.' We were mostly invisible as gay, which made it hard for gay men and lesbians to develop good social lives and to create a movement to battle injustice and prejudice." That's the late pioneer gay activist Barbara Gittings.
And now? Although we have not yet achieved social, legal, and political equality, there are ample grounds for feeling pleased, proud even, about the progress we have made.
In the 1950s barely a handful of gays and lesbians were out of the closet. Most were closeted not out of shame, I suspect, but because of a very real fear of discrimination and hostility and that people would automatically think less of them if they were known to be gay. Now there are millions of gays and lesbians, perhaps including you, who are confidently open about their orientation and think that if other people disapprove of homosexuality, so much the worse for them: they are simply ignorant. What a remarkable change!
Today many young people have the same fears that all gays did fifty years ago. But now we have created resources--books, websites, gay clubs in schools and colleges--that they can access to help them through those fears as a phase and not a life-long condition.
Partly because more people have gotten to know us personally, we have moved public opinion from almost universal disapproval of homosexuals to a kind of split decision. A 2004 Pew Center survey found that 49 percent of the public said homosexuality should be accepted by society, while only 44 percent said it should be discouraged. And the momentum is on our side as each generation expresses more gay-positive attitudes than the one preceding it.
In most cities we have formed numerous community groups to help promote gay economic, cultural, and political progress and to help other gay people with their quality of life--old gays, young gays, deaf gays, people with AIDS, parents of gays, etc. Large numbers of gay and lesbian volunteers help these organizations function effectively. Fifty years ago there was--nothing.
A friend remarked the other day that every time he passes by Chicago's new gay community center he sees people going in and out whom he has never seen before. It made him realize, he said, how many more people are actively involved in gay community programs than he had thought.
These are volunteers who could be doing something else with their time but who obviously find it rewarding, even self-actualizing, to contribute to the community. No doubt it is also an important way publicly to affirm the value of their identity by involving it in a contribution to society.
Fifty years ago, some employers fired gays and lesbians. By contrast, we are now an identifiable and quantifiably large market. That has helped persuade numerous companies to adopt non-discrimination and partner benefits programs for their gay employees. More than most social and political activists admit, economic behavior is the fundamental social force in society. Economic change brings other change in its wake, sometimes kicking and screaming but ineluctably. Businesses that want to maximize their income need to maximize our patronage.
The social and economic progress we have made in the last 50 years has been partly obscured because it has not been fully reflected in the political realm. But beneath the notice of hostile presidents and congresses we have won increasing social acceptance. The election of more supportive national officials from either party should help political progress catch up with our social and economic progress.
Finally, keep in mind that what the first gay activists undertook was a moral revolution. Fifty years ago, few prominent people challenged the idea that homosexuality was morally wrong or "sinful." It must feel very odd for recent Catholic popes to see within their lifetimes the rise of a mass movement of people who utterly reject 2000 years of tradition on a fundamental moral issue like homosexuality and say, in effect, "I reject what you preach. I'm moral; you're not." Popes hate that!
One Comment for “Much to Be Proud Of”
posted by Pink Elephant on
“More than most social and political activists admit, economic behavior is the fundamental social force in society. Economic change brings other change in its wake, sometimes kicking and screaming but ineluctably.”
I couldn’t agree more. Though our political power may be lacking we can see real positive change thanks to our market power. To simplify, once you have economic rights, you can buy all the rest.