Homophobia??

[Vaylen]

In Sweden, sexuality is roughly not an important thing in the majority of the country. There are of course some smaller towns and whatever which still contains narrow minded individuals but when it comes to the bigger cities, or even most "smaller" cities, most people are accepting.

During the vote on homosexual marriage in Sweden, I believe that 92% of the country voted for homosexual marriage to be legal and blessed. Even 3/4s of the Christian Democrats (A political party) was completely for the act.

So in conclusion, Sweden is on the right path and is going in that direction more and more every day. Me and my friends will be starting up an LGBTA Youth Community here in town and so far, we have only gotten positive feedback. Despite the fact that it seems extremely accepting here, there are still countless people who are afraid of coming out, however. The reason for this is because of family and friends whom are (most of the time) not Swedish by ethnicity or birth. In the political circles, sexuality means nothing in Sweden. The only homophobia which is present here is the one in the simple minded individual.

That goes for Sweden. The rest of the world...I believe it goes up and down. If we look at the middle east, there are some freedom fighters there who truly try to make a difference and I look up to them from the bottom of my heart. The same goes for Africa. In America, it varies greatly from state to state.
The question of acceptance is going up and down...it seems, but as long as there are people who are willing to fight for the cause, there will be people who fight against it. But I rather fight for acceptance until my very last breath than to hide because of oppression.

[writerken]

I think there's plenty of it to go round still.

[Sport77]

My thoughts are that more and more everyday, it becomes at least in some parts of the world, ok, or at least is becoming easier to be openly gay. There are still of course, many places where one would/could be burned at the stake so to speak. In the end, I think, more people are asking themselves the question "Is it a crime to be human?"

[Eromir]

In my home country it's getting better. 10-15 years ago homosexuals didn't even exist. Well, they did, but only as a synonym for pedophiles. Then we had our first gay Pride events. There were about five times more protesters than people taking part in the event. Now no one really cares if it takes part or not, only a handful of Christians show up to protest. In 2005 gay marriage was banned constitutionally(previously the problem didn't even exist), but now there is a real hope of making it legal again within the next few years. There has been a huge change in attitude within the past few years and the younger generation doesn't have any problems with it.
Interestingly, the U.S. embassy is pressuring the government to legalize gay marriage.

Since I'm living in Berlin, which is basically the capital city of Gay, I haven't felt any homophobia at all and it's perfectly okay to make out in public.

[Pix]

I guess I should add that I think overall the world is becoming less homophobic on average.

And it seems to be happening faster than back when racial injustices being addressed (I realize problems still exist...), I'm not sure if it's because deep down everyone knows it will mean a lot less changes (even if every gay person were to marry we'd still be a small minority and society will mostly cater to heterosexuals first) so aren't fighting it as much or because humanity as a species is actually starting to adopt actual civilization (that is based on seeing each other as human beings rather than just a "might makes right" tribalism that has defined our species...well pretty much still does though not as much as it used to). Part of me thinks that the internet has made those different less threatening along with positive gay role models in the media (plus so many anti-discrimination movies like the popular X-Men to Star Trek movies) has helped "grease the wheels" so to speak while a more cynical part of me thinks that gays tend to have a lot more money than other minorities (the so-called "pink dollar") and so big business wants to promote equality (as many have, some surprising me) just so they can get our money easier.

[Pix]

Oh, I meant to share (both for fun, and how the public being exposed to many comics like this highlighting the ridiculousness of homophobia might be helping as well):

[Andynyc]

BAdddd i think

[Corsac]

I think you're seeing more examples of homophobia because of countries worldwide debating about legalising "Gay Marriage". Other then that I don't think its on the increase.

[Kiid]

The world feels like it is becoming more homophobic or less homophobic or No change.

The world feels screwed up. Democracy is only good for the lols. I don't care about homophobia I care about why people are homophobic. And that ends up being people with moneys fault again (especially Churches and other religious factions).

[bluefox4000]

I don't know. There are moments I feel we're getting somewhere.....but then i'll see or read something and it's like 12 fuckin' steps back.

Mick