We really have come a long way

[dsc]

It is so easy to get depressed lately and forget just how far we have come in a realtively short time. Although I am not that old, I just turned 37 about a month ago, in just my adult lifetime things have changed immensely. The year I graduated high school AIDS was still a deadly disease and it was feared that all gay men would be wiped out. Being a gay politician was unthinkable. Being a gay parent, unless it was of a biological child, was also very rare. I thought they would be planting tomatos on Mars before I would be allowed to be married in any state. Spread out to my entire lifelime and gays were still considered to be ill (1973 was the year that the APA removed homosexuality from the list of phycological disorders), perpertrators of moral terpretude unworthy of professional licensure in several states, and without any effective political organization (Stonewall was in 1969 and Harvey Milk was in 1977)

Fast forward a few decades and we have 14 state level civil rights laws (assuming IL's becomes law) including three of the five largest states. We can marry in one state, and have reasonable marriage equivalents in three others. We have three Representatives, and but for Kerry losing this November we might have had a gay Senator. In states such as North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, and Florida there are openly gay representatives. New Jersey had a gay governor for a few months.

Gays now can adopt in nearly every state. In even states like North Carolina there are school districts which refuse to discriminate against homosexual teachers. There are gay cops, lesbian lawyers, and a host of other gay and lesbian professionals.

We are right to fear a backlash. We have every right to be disappointed with the election. But we have come so far, so fast (in historical terms) that we should really take time to thank our lucky stars that we were born when we were and not in the distant past.

[Meldread]

1. Amen!

We've come a long way. Although we've still got a long way to go. We've faced a couple set backs, and times are starting to get tuff, but we're still ahead. We're still alive, and as long as we don't fall silent, and as long as we keep on fighting, we'll be victorious in the end.