In 1975, Minneapolis became the first US jurisdiction to ban discrimination "based on having or projecting a self-image not associated with one's biological maleness or one's biological femaleness."
In other words, four decades have passed since that language was added to the city's human-rights laws. In the meantime, hundreds of other municipalities and thirty-two states (as well as the District of Columbia) have passed similar legislation. Moreover, same-sex marriage is now legal in three dozen states; in 2003, none allowed it.
I like to think that these facts indicate a sea-change in attitudes about LGBT people. I also would like to believe that they show--as the reversal of Jim Crow laws and other forms of racial discrimination, and the appearance of black faces on prime-time television, courtrooms, executive offices and operating rooms showed us--the homophobes and transpohobes, as well as racists and other haters, are losing the battle.
Their time is running out and they know it. I read somewhere that within twenty years from now, non-white Hispanics will no longer be the majority in this country. By that time, we will also have a generation of children raised by same-sex parents and, I hope, LGBT people in places in roles where they've never been before. And most people will find same-sex couples and trans people no more noteworthy than a white American marrying an Hispanic, or a black to an Asian.
The prospect of such things, of course, infuriates the haters. But, as I said, they know, deep down, they're losing the battle. So they're becoming desperate--which makes them say ever-more ridiculous, stupid, disgusting and mean things.
Case in point: Mike Huckabee. This Neanderthal Faux, I mean, Fox News commentator wants to be President. So, not long ago, he said something very, very Presidential: If there were more transgender acceptance when he was in high school, he joked, "I'm pretty sure that I would have found my feminine side and said, "Coach, I think I'd rather shower with girls today".
Ha, ha, ha. One day the joke will be on him--and such luminaries as Ann Coulter and Matt Walsh--when they are relegated to the dustbin of history.
In other words, four decades have passed since that language was added to the city's human-rights laws. In the meantime, hundreds of other municipalities and thirty-two states (as well as the District of Columbia) have passed similar legislation. Moreover, same-sex marriage is now legal in three dozen states; in 2003, none allowed it.
I like to think that these facts indicate a sea-change in attitudes about LGBT people. I also would like to believe that they show--as the reversal of Jim Crow laws and other forms of racial discrimination, and the appearance of black faces on prime-time television, courtrooms, executive offices and operating rooms showed us--the homophobes and transpohobes, as well as racists and other haters, are losing the battle.
Their time is running out and they know it. I read somewhere that within twenty years from now, non-white Hispanics will no longer be the majority in this country. By that time, we will also have a generation of children raised by same-sex parents and, I hope, LGBT people in places in roles where they've never been before. And most people will find same-sex couples and trans people no more noteworthy than a white American marrying an Hispanic, or a black to an Asian.
The prospect of such things, of course, infuriates the haters. But, as I said, they know, deep down, they're losing the battle. So they're becoming desperate--which makes them say ever-more ridiculous, stupid, disgusting and mean things.
Case in point: Mike Huckabee. This Neanderthal Faux, I mean, Fox News commentator wants to be President. So, not long ago, he said something very, very Presidential: If there were more transgender acceptance when he was in high school, he joked, "I'm pretty sure that I would have found my feminine side and said, "Coach, I think I'd rather shower with girls today".
Ha, ha, ha. One day the joke will be on him--and such luminaries as Ann Coulter and Matt Walsh--when they are relegated to the dustbin of history.
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