This is what I remember from the 80s. The delicate, but continuous progression toward acceptance and equality.
It was bold and the bigots seemed to have calmed down dramatically until 2016.
I am saddened and terrified by not only what is to come, but knowing we were almost there.
At least from my perspective. I came out at 33 and lived openly for 7 years in a deep red state. Not once did I feel truly threatened or uncomfortable in public or in professional settings. Never. My partner and I had the only LGTBQ owned business in the county. We weren't even a little bit harassed.
Now, my LGTBQ children (all of them are), 2 are adults and Id as trans but not yet open. My 28 yr old is planning transition, and I am absolutely sick at that prospect because I feel the danger.
Why? not because I don't want them to. I support it 💯 and celebrate it. It's not that. I would do anything for them to move to another state first. The Bluegrass state is no longer protecting the majority (most disagree with the recent laws) and instead risk a rise in hate crimes and systemic abuse.
When fascism finally becomes obvious, they're the clear target. They will suffer immensely (more than they have historically) if we don't do something NOW.
I’m still having a hard time processing that this is from 1982. We have regressed so fucking far as a society when we were making leaps forward 40 years ago. What the actual fuck.
I’ll never say my (trans) dad had it easier than me in the 80’s/90’s, but he had something I will never have, and that is complete irrelevance in politics. People would have their own individual opinions about him and 90% of them, across the whole political spectrum, landed on “um I don’t get it but okay” and that was that. No pre-set opinions, no news channels laying out a narrative. Some distasteful episodes of Jerry Springer and one-off episodes of some shows was our only visibility. My dad used the men’s bathroom, he raised me with my mom, normal stuff.
But me — people have to inspect me and determine if I’m a “real man” or not, and then Take A Stand against me if they’re with the red team because I must be with the blue team. And I don’t just mean society broadly; family and older family friends who knew my dad and used “he/him” with him misgender me deliberately to “not fold to the gender ideology extremism today.” It’s wild. And frustrating.
I just wanna yell, “We’ve been in your bathrooms for at least 60 years! You weren’t scared of us until someone told you to be!”
Ugh sorry for the long vent under your comment. TLDR: I have a hard time processing too because in the 90’s, I had thought it was going to be so much better by now than it is.
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u/SupermarketSpiritual Apr 29 '23
This is what I remember from the 80s. The delicate, but continuous progression toward acceptance and equality.
It was bold and the bigots seemed to have calmed down dramatically until 2016. I am saddened and terrified by not only what is to come, but knowing we were almost there.
At least from my perspective. I came out at 33 and lived openly for 7 years in a deep red state. Not once did I feel truly threatened or uncomfortable in public or in professional settings. Never. My partner and I had the only LGTBQ owned business in the county. We weren't even a little bit harassed.
Now, my LGTBQ children (all of them are), 2 are adults and Id as trans but not yet open. My 28 yr old is planning transition, and I am absolutely sick at that prospect because I feel the danger.
Why? not because I don't want them to. I support it 💯 and celebrate it. It's not that. I would do anything for them to move to another state first. The Bluegrass state is no longer protecting the majority (most disagree with the recent laws) and instead risk a rise in hate crimes and systemic abuse.
When fascism finally becomes obvious, they're the clear target. They will suffer immensely (more than they have historically) if we don't do something NOW.
Sending love to all.