Friday, June 4, 2010 11:18am
When we come out we put a human face to our issues. I'm not saying that means we should all rush head long into being out without accessing the consequences (see: Sara Isaacson), but coming out prevents people from being able to talk about us and our rights in the abstract. Instead of saying that "Gay people shouldn't be allowed to marry", they must think that "My son/daughter/brother/sister/neighbor shouldn't be allowed to marry". Unfortunately in some cases this doesn't always change hearts and minds, but in a lot of cases it does.
Just so you know, we have continued to come out. We see it in our celebrity culture (Adam Lambert, Ricky Martin, Chris Colfer, Sean Hayes, Chely Wright, etc.), but more and more average people are coming out too. If there's any evidence in that, it's the results of this year's Gallup poll (the opposition has gone from 57% to 53%, closing the gap to only 9 percentage points in their favor).
Keep coming out!
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Labels: Coming Out, Gabby, June 4, National Pride Month
"While 57% of Americans oppose legalizing gay marriage, Americans who personally know someone who is gay or lesbian are almost evenly divided on the matter, with 49% in favor and 47% opposed. Among those who do not personally know anyone who is gay, 72% oppose legalized gay marriage while just 27% favor it."That statistic is a year old from a Gallup poll. Caitlin posted it Friday, June 5th, 2009 as a way to share the importance of coming out. By now, most of us have seen Milk, and we know how that the man, who was perhaps the greatest LGBTQ activist of all time, thought that coming out was the most important thing we could do for the cause. I would have to say that I agree with him.
When we come out we put a human face to our issues. I'm not saying that means we should all rush head long into being out without accessing the consequences (see: Sara Isaacson), but coming out prevents people from being able to talk about us and our rights in the abstract. Instead of saying that "Gay people shouldn't be allowed to marry", they must think that "My son/daughter/brother/sister/neighbor shouldn't be allowed to marry". Unfortunately in some cases this doesn't always change hearts and minds, but in a lot of cases it does.
Just so you know, we have continued to come out. We see it in our celebrity culture (Adam Lambert, Ricky Martin, Chris Colfer, Sean Hayes, Chely Wright, etc.), but more and more average people are coming out too. If there's any evidence in that, it's the results of this year's Gallup poll (the opposition has gone from 57% to 53%, closing the gap to only 9 percentage points in their favor).
Keep coming out!
Comment
Labels: Coming Out, Gabby, June 4, National Pride Month
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