01-17-2012, 06:44 PM
Gee I'm old enough to have lived through a lot of that 'stuff' ('stuff' is an euphemism).
I hear gay youth complaining about a lot about not being allowed to marry and the very few issues left. They have no idea what it was like to be a gay male in the 1970's and the 1980's where being 'out' in nearly every field meant you would lose your job. The employers were full within their right (legally) to fire you for being a pervert (gay).
I knew guys who had undergone electroshock therapy. While that officially ended for the treatment of homosexuality in the 1970's, there were still plenty of psychiatrists who were more than willing to use electroshock therapy to treat homosexuality.
Of course that was still part of the era when they thought 225-240 volts could cure anything.
As a wanna be minister (I have my D.Min. took seminary, did ministry for a spell) I spent a good deal of time hand writing letters to bishops in the Anglican Church (Episcopal) decrying the anti-gay policies of the time.
I considered it a huge win when in 2004 The Right Reverend, Gene Robinson became the Bishop of New Hampshire. The first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church.
Up to that time from around the early 1990's the Church's stance was more or less 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'. To a point this is till the policy in many areas, however the Episcopal Church (The American arm of the Anglican Church) is far, far more open and tolerant to homosexuals in general than when I was in seminary and putting in my ministry time in order to earn my D.Min (demon - lol).
As part of my ministry I worked in a hospice environment, this was during the mid to late 1980's when Ronald Reagan was President. The fool refused to acknowledge the problem of HIV/AIDS, his administration could have stemmed plague if their conservative fear of the gay didn't exist. Had the government responded swiftly, when it first started showing up things would have went far, far differently. Instead we have/had millions dying largely through ignorance.
I watched many young men die - alone, from AIDS. It wasn't the fear of AIDS that kept family members away, it was Fear of The Gay. A decent chunk of these gay men hadn't come out to their families when they contracted the disease. The way their family found out they were gay was by the illness.
Back then few families tolerated gay children - far fewer than today.
What annoys me about all of this is we continually call it 'Gay' Rights. The truth is we are talking about Human Rights that is not applied equally to all. It is no different than Woman's Rights and Black Rights - same basic issues - same lack of understanding that we humans come in a much wider array of packaging than white, middle aged, wealthy male.
I hear gay youth complaining about a lot about not being allowed to marry and the very few issues left. They have no idea what it was like to be a gay male in the 1970's and the 1980's where being 'out' in nearly every field meant you would lose your job. The employers were full within their right (legally) to fire you for being a pervert (gay).
I knew guys who had undergone electroshock therapy. While that officially ended for the treatment of homosexuality in the 1970's, there were still plenty of psychiatrists who were more than willing to use electroshock therapy to treat homosexuality.
Of course that was still part of the era when they thought 225-240 volts could cure anything.
As a wanna be minister (I have my D.Min. took seminary, did ministry for a spell) I spent a good deal of time hand writing letters to bishops in the Anglican Church (Episcopal) decrying the anti-gay policies of the time.
I considered it a huge win when in 2004 The Right Reverend, Gene Robinson became the Bishop of New Hampshire. The first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church.
Up to that time from around the early 1990's the Church's stance was more or less 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'. To a point this is till the policy in many areas, however the Episcopal Church (The American arm of the Anglican Church) is far, far more open and tolerant to homosexuals in general than when I was in seminary and putting in my ministry time in order to earn my D.Min (demon - lol).
As part of my ministry I worked in a hospice environment, this was during the mid to late 1980's when Ronald Reagan was President. The fool refused to acknowledge the problem of HIV/AIDS, his administration could have stemmed plague if their conservative fear of the gay didn't exist. Had the government responded swiftly, when it first started showing up things would have went far, far differently. Instead we have/had millions dying largely through ignorance.
I watched many young men die - alone, from AIDS. It wasn't the fear of AIDS that kept family members away, it was Fear of The Gay. A decent chunk of these gay men hadn't come out to their families when they contracted the disease. The way their family found out they were gay was by the illness.
Back then few families tolerated gay children - far fewer than today.
What annoys me about all of this is we continually call it 'Gay' Rights. The truth is we are talking about Human Rights that is not applied equally to all. It is no different than Woman's Rights and Black Rights - same basic issues - same lack of understanding that we humans come in a much wider array of packaging than white, middle aged, wealthy male.
![[-]](https://gayspeak.com/images/duende_v3_local/collapse.png)
