So after reading lots of stories about the mass murders at the club in Orlando, from many different sides including even Fox News, I have a bit of a personal dilemma.
The LGBT movement toward equality has moved VERY quickly in the last 50 years. Many people have fought and died for this group to be accepted or at least to be tolerated by society rather than ostracized or much worse. During that time of struggle members of the LGBT group banned together; safety in numbers as the saying goes. As acceptance slowly grew in the early days, so did these communities. People out in public were getting more accepted and therefore more visible. People could now find other like-minded people more easily when they were readily visible. To protect one another, to make sure each other's business and livelihood survived, gayborhoods grew up. Just like other immigrant populations, LGBT pockets of cities came up. People could find comfort in knowing other people like them were in the world after they got kicked out of their families or jobs or apartments.
Now, however, as LGBT populations are even more accepted and embraced by society, the need for safety and protection to each other has lessened. Gays are starting to move to the suburbs in record numbers, for cheaper land, to exercise their newly granted ability to adopt a family, to make it on their own without fear of being fired or linched.
During the Orlando tragedy, however, I saw the advantages of having a close-knit group supporting each other. Almost immediately vigils popped up in gayborhoods all over the world. Drives to get the FDA to loosen it's stance on blood donation bans to gays reached critical mass. Massive donations, not just for survivors, but grief counseling for the families of the victims came through by the millions.
But my conflict is, what will happen again in the future when those support groups are not so readily available? Day by day I see businesses in the gayborhoods closing because gays don't live there or shop there anymore and they cannot stay open. Events are not "gay" events anymore so much as "gay friendly". The LGBT community is losing its identity, for good and bad.
Isn't blending into society the point of the equality movement? But then doesn't the group lose identity and independence in fighting for that? This event happened at a "gay" bar, but things like gay bars are becoming a relic of the past.
I have a feeling the shooting might not have happened, if it was indeed targeted toward gays, if gays were 100% accepted in today's society. But then again, the outpouring of love and unity for the survivors wouldn't have happened, either.
I am conflicted because I am in between the generation that invented the gay culture and equality movement and the generation that does not know there is even a movement because they already (almost) have equality.
The LGBT movement toward equality has moved VERY quickly in the last 50 years. Many people have fought and died for this group to be accepted or at least to be tolerated by society rather than ostracized or much worse. During that time of struggle members of the LGBT group banned together; safety in numbers as the saying goes. As acceptance slowly grew in the early days, so did these communities. People out in public were getting more accepted and therefore more visible. People could now find other like-minded people more easily when they were readily visible. To protect one another, to make sure each other's business and livelihood survived, gayborhoods grew up. Just like other immigrant populations, LGBT pockets of cities came up. People could find comfort in knowing other people like them were in the world after they got kicked out of their families or jobs or apartments.
Now, however, as LGBT populations are even more accepted and embraced by society, the need for safety and protection to each other has lessened. Gays are starting to move to the suburbs in record numbers, for cheaper land, to exercise their newly granted ability to adopt a family, to make it on their own without fear of being fired or linched.
During the Orlando tragedy, however, I saw the advantages of having a close-knit group supporting each other. Almost immediately vigils popped up in gayborhoods all over the world. Drives to get the FDA to loosen it's stance on blood donation bans to gays reached critical mass. Massive donations, not just for survivors, but grief counseling for the families of the victims came through by the millions.
But my conflict is, what will happen again in the future when those support groups are not so readily available? Day by day I see businesses in the gayborhoods closing because gays don't live there or shop there anymore and they cannot stay open. Events are not "gay" events anymore so much as "gay friendly". The LGBT community is losing its identity, for good and bad.
Isn't blending into society the point of the equality movement? But then doesn't the group lose identity and independence in fighting for that? This event happened at a "gay" bar, but things like gay bars are becoming a relic of the past.
I have a feeling the shooting might not have happened, if it was indeed targeted toward gays, if gays were 100% accepted in today's society. But then again, the outpouring of love and unity for the survivors wouldn't have happened, either.
I am conflicted because I am in between the generation that invented the gay culture and equality movement and the generation that does not know there is even a movement because they already (almost) have equality.
