Will being gay ever be "normal"?

[MaximumT]

Inspired by Otage's thread about parents not asking if their child is gay, I began to think...

Do you think being gay will ever be as accepted as being straight? I mean, will there be a time in the future where you don't need to "come out of the closet" to your friends and family? A time where a son comes home with a boyfriend or a daughter comes home with a girlfriend won't be frowned upon?

I hope that time will come, although we've still got many years before we reach there, some countries sooner than others. I believe that as long as we make it (being gay) special, people will somehow treat it differently.

 

[ihno]

Well, even if it doesn't matter socially, you'll have to inform your parents that you like boys, not girls. Being gay is being different somehow, there is no use. Gays will always need and have a right for their own structures, bars, internetsites etc. And that has nothing to do with "making it special": in a bar for straights I just might not find what I'm looking for.

You will always have to "come out" - that is not the question. The question should be about the quality of the "closet" and as for that I vote "yes", it won't matter anymore in some point in the future.

 

[bigsal]

Even if my heart want to answer: yes, reflecting closely the answer is: no, at least for a long time.

You can not even do a realistic forecast, if one day can happen.

Today we have the media, unthinkable a short time ago, but instead of progress mentally, we are locked into our mental box.

Important decisions, let them take to other, mostly because we do not want to assume our responsibility in the face of a society incapable of improvement.

Technologically, medically and, in part, economically we are making progress, but if not we open our minds to a vision much broader, the "normality" remains a hoped-for utopia.

Most of the people still in need of heroes, myths, leaders, ideologies, but especially religion, the real opium for the people.

As long as the human race will be crushed by these "needs", there is no room for the mind.

 

[Sinnerr]

I'd say yes. But it will be in distant future. But in general I'm satisfied with level of acceptance gay people in my country, especially when I see how hard is it in so many other countries.

 

[Tjerk12]

The word Normal is not well chosen, I think. The word Natural would be better. Nature causes Straight and Homosexual people. Nature makes a four leaf clover and people adore it. History shows us that in many periods people had no trouble at all to accept the Natural status of Homosexuals. Google a bit and search under Song of Songs, Gay poem, and you will find beautiful poetry, which is recorded in the Old Testament (920 B C E). The intolerance appeared in younger times and mainly in Christianity or related believes. And of course for some strange reason in communism.
In The Netherlands at least by law Homosexuality is seen as Natural. Politicians, Military, Police and officials can be openly gay. Problems are mainly caused by normal people, who do not have the brains to understand that they think abnormal. But that is just a matter of time.

 

[tonka]

I've lived longer than some of you. The change over my life has been extraordinary. The change the past few years has been amazing.
Not everywhere, but in much of the world, it's the best time EVER to be gay.
I'm very optimistic about our place in the world.

 

[SimplyJakeAndAlex]

I've lived longer than some of you. The change over my life has been extraordinary. The change the past few years has been amazing.
Not everywhere, but in much of the world, it's the best time EVER to be gay.
I'm very optimistic about our place in the world.

I have to agree with Tonka... I'm only 36 and in 15 years I have seen a lot of changes.. things are looking good.

And please avoid using NORMAL to define behavior or situation. Normal is a mathematical switch like it is normal that 1+1=2. It is normal because it isn't going to change... human being have no normalization... we are all unique and different therefore we cannot apply normal to define us because what is normal for one group is abnormal to the other.

 

[gb2000ie]

I think that really depends on where you live.

I am lucky to live in a university town, and to work in the uni - being gay is totally normal in my environment. I'm 100% out, and it is just not an issue - no one bats an eyelid when B+1 is two guys at personal or work social events.

I know that I could move at little as 10 miles in any direction from where my I'm typing this now and it would cease to be true. Let alone getting on a plane and heading for the middle east or Africa or any of the other places where gays are still being lynched or executed.

B.

 

[trencherman]

There was a time in Western history as in Greece when homosexual acts were not frowned on. If that was normal, yes there might be a time when what you do in bed is nobody's business might come back.

 

[kateean2]

The word Natural would be better. Nature causes Straight and Homosexual people.

 

[josh_the_hot_boy]

Short and simple. Being gay is normal.

 

[MaximumT]

The word Normal is not well chosen, I think. The word Natural would be better. Nature causes Straight and Homosexual people. Nature makes a four leaf clover and people adore it. History shows us that in many periods people had no trouble at all to accept the Natural status of Homosexuals. Google a bit and search under Song of Songs, Gay poem, and you will find beautiful poetry, which is recorded in the Old Testament (920 B C E). The intolerance appeared in younger times and mainly in Christianity or related believes. And of course for some strange reason in communism.
In The Netherlands at least by law Homosexuality is seen as Natural. Politicians, Military, Police and officials can be openly gay. Problems are mainly caused by normal people, who do not have the brains to understand that they think abnormal. But that is just a matter of time.

I don't like the word normal either, hence the quotation mark, but at the time I couldn't think of a better word. Although I also find the word natural unfit for the topic, because homosexuality is biologically natural. What I mean by normal is what is socially acceptable, and by that what is normal do gradually change depending on country, time and also individual. I don't think we should get hung up on a single word too much, though.

 

[topdog]

I took normal to mean "no big deal". And gb2000ie is right, it's already here in many cosmopolitan communities.

I have noted a big change here in the US in the last year. For the first time prejudice against gay people is seen as socially unacceptable instead of just a difference of opinion. People opposing gay marriage or expressing disgust at homosexuals are being called bigots.

The anti-homosexual people are, of course, shocked at this. They are used to being part of the majority opinion. In many places, however, that is no longer the case.

To quote a popular television show, welcome to the "New Normal"!

 

[edkiko]

yes