The YouTube video below is a really good snap shot or overview of where society stood on gay rights issues in the distant past and how far we have progressed as a society in the recent past. I’ve often wondered what people will ask me in the future about this time. 50 years from now will younger generations understand what the gay rights movement was about? WIll the movement even be over in 50 years? Either way, it’s exhilarating to think history is being written right now. I will be a part of history. You will be a part of history. A question was posed in this video–which side of history will you be on? Do you know? Do I know?
Last year the Onion published an article called Future U.S. History Students: It’s Pretty Embarrassing How Long You Guys Took to Legalize Gay Marriage, which was written from the perspective of students born in 2060. About the fight for a constitutional right for gays and lesbians to wed, one of the fictional students says:
“It’s really embarrassing, when you think about it. Just the fact that people in this century were actually saying things like, ‘No, gays should not be allowed to marry,’ and were getting all up in arms about it, as if homosexuals weren’t full citizens or something. It’s insane.”
Another student asked, “If they thought it was the right thing to do, why didn’t President Clinton or Obama or whoever just say, ‘Hey, discriminating against gay people is wrong, so let’s let them get married’?”
Why isn’t it that simple? I’m not sure. For everyone out there who feels like they should be supportive of gay marriage, why don’t you come out in support of gay marriage? The Governor of Washington State recently explained one reason why she was against gay marriage for 7 years (and why she had a change of opinion): social pressure.