Since the late 1960s, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in USA has seen steady gains in rights. While discrimination against LGBT people persists in many places, major strides toward mainstream social acceptance and formal legal equality have nonetheless been made in recent decades. USA is internationally regarded as a leader in this field. Recent years have seen steady progress on everything from health care to the right to adopt. On May 17, 2004, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state and the sixth jurisdiction in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, USA became the fourth country worldwide to legalize same-sex marriage.

There’s no question that the lifestyle has changed in the forty years since the ’70s. One of the greatest causes of that has been the explosion of mass media and the internet. We’ve tremendous knowing of diseases, cultures, and consequences of things that people acquired no idea been around in 1975.

Once you reach 50, you come with an epiphany. Everything, and After all everything, that existed when you were 20 was so much better. If you’re not careful, you can change into a cynical A-hole:

“Oh. We didn’t have this once i was more youthful.”

“The music of the generation sucks.”

“When I was a youngster, we didn’t value some of this crap.”

“Stop being so ungrateful. We didn’t even have cell phones after i was your age.”

Fran Lebowitz had an excellent realization in her documentary Public Speaking. When you compare today’s world (whenever your fifty) to thirty years back (when you were 20), everything is going to be better – simply because you were younger. It’s not that the world was ACTUALLY better, it’s just the world got more potential and pleasure when you were youthful.

But when it involves the gay community, the changes are significantly different. Is it better or worse? Let’s look…

THE WORKPLACE

Back then, it was a normal thing to get fired from your task simply because you were homosexual – in reality, it wasn’t taboo. It was a respectable thing to do.

A lot of the states today still have no anti-discrimination laws at work. Signifying, they can actually fire you, refuse to hire you, not offer with office bullying or harassment, or choose never to promote you. All because you are gay. Since today’s world doesn’t view homosexuality as a huge threat anymore, you would believe that all the claims could have legal safety for homosexual people. They don’t.

Many workers in America are frightened to come out to their co-workers and cannot discuss their partners to anyone in fear that they may get fired, or even worse, get treated differently. Though the witch-hunt of the ’70s has ended, it is still not demolished.

S-E-X

In the 1970s, gay sex was a very underground thing – something that this generation won’t understand. It was literally ILLEGAL to have homosexual sex. The result of such an work could take you to prison instantly or lead to your name appearing in the papers the next morning for the world to see (including your boss). Due to it’s “hush-hush” persona, speaking of it was extremely taboo. If you think it would made having sex harder, in truth it was just the opposite.

The gay community had no idea about HIV/AIDS. In fact, it wasn’t even in the world’s vocabulary at the time. This created a huge explosion of unprotected sex through the “Free Love” motion. No other city was greater impacted than New York City. Being a homosexual man in New York, you could leave your apartment and five minutes later meet a guy on the street and take him back again to your spot to have sex with him.

With a look or a glance, you instantly knew that these were looking for sex. In the 1970s, there was an infamous pier in the Manhattan that most gay people knew about – it was the “go to” place for homosexual sex, at any time of day. The authorities quickly found out about this place and patrolled it constantly.

Before Grindr and Adam4Adam, gay men would meet in certain regions of the park. Usually between times at night. You would choose your gay friends and could each find your own man to collect. This, of course, was very dangerous. Sometimes cops would go under cover and arrest who ever attemptedto flirt with them.

Today, sex has so much baggage. Because we are well aware of STDs and the consequences of it, there is so much intellectualizing before the actual work happens…

“Are you clean?” or “When’s the last time you got examined?” or “How many partners have you got?” or “I only F*ck with Latex.”

People are scared of sex nowadays. It’s almost as though the fun has been removed from it. HIV/Helps changed the entire world. Organizations and communities were actually wiped off the map. It is still an epidemic and young men today need to safeguard themselves, but at the same time they can’t be SCARED to have sex. Sex is supposed to be fun and interesting. Your safety should be concern, but don’t allow it keep you in dread.

CULTURE

In the ’70s when gays were looked at as criminals, most of us took great pride in being as crazy once we can – inside our dress, our acts, and our night life. This was obviously a kind of rebellion. It had been the attitude of “if you don’t like us, we’re heading to be as noisy once we can merely to rub it in!”

Even dating back to the ’20s and ’30s, homosexual people found comfort in move and lavish wardrobes. It represented freedom and appearance, the kind that was oppressed by the day to day society, but welcomed by people who have been like us. It was the shock value of it all that gave us utter pleasure, especially when straight people viewed us lifeless in the face in complete distaste.

We were all in it collectively. We were criminals, destined and cuffed to the laws that prohibited us from being true to ourselves. There is no one that understood our experiences, except other homosexual people.

The culture today has changed into a more clique-ish and judgmental community WITHIN the community. Though there are numerous people who still understand the value of it, there are others who neglect to remember the fight my generation fought to accomplish this independence. Instead, the link of understanding and sympathy has left. The fear is fully gone – it no longer is present. We don’t need to be scared of what folks think folks anymore, because generally, the world is okay with the homosexual community.

We are no longer criminals so you don’t have to hide. As a result of this, the bonds that brought the homosexual community closer collectively are gradually disappearing.

When gay relationship arrived to the limelight in recent years, the city had a justification to get together again. At last, they realized that we in fact, are not equal yet. This realization brought upon an education to the young homosexual era of LGBT background that they could not need ever gained in any other case.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

No matter what generation you live in, it is important to remember where you came from so as to know where you’re heading. LGBT background is something that people should always cherish in the gay community. Without it, we will neglect to see the importance of our own growth. The world today continues to be so blind to us. Almost thirty percent of the united states (even more!) don’t believe we should have the same privileges they are doing.

It’s time we remember where we originated from so that people can further build the bridge to equality, serenity, and eventually to a much better future.

Same-Sex Marriage Fast Facts:

Carlos McKnight of Washington waves a flag in support of same-sex marriage outside the U.S. Supreme Court on June 26, 2015. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that states cannot ban same-sex marriage, handing gay rights advocates their biggest victory yet. See photos from states that approved same-sex marriage before the nationwide ruling. (CNN) – Here’s some background information about same-sex marriage in the United States and worldwide.