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Being Gay: Coming Out in the 21st Century

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Being Gay: Coming Out In The 21st Century
People come from shame to pride, which is a long process. In the 1940’s the military says that you are not criminals, you are just ill. As the wars ended, and they were getting rid of military men, they started weeding out the gays. Their rights were taken away, and they were not allowed back into the military. No one ever spoke the words “gay” or “lesbian”. In 1969 stonewall took place and police showed up at the bars where the gays hung out. Typically no one fought back, however, this time they did. They say stonewall was their coming out. Activism never stopped from that point on. In 1973 the American Psychiatry removed homosexuality as a mental disorder. Then 1980 came and AIDS began spreading, and at that time there was 1.5 million people that had been diagnosed. In 1990 gay parades were going on, celebrities began coming out to the public. Even though today homosexuals are more accepted, there are still many homophobes and bigotry. Some say they get rocks thrown at them and get called names such as “fag”. Rev. Dr. Penny Nixon says that she won’t hold her girlfriends hand in public for fear that she will get beat up. There are some people who will even kill gays/lesbians when they see them. Matthew Shepherd was tied to a fence and beaten and left to die because he was gay. Research now shows that being homosexual is not an illness, not a choice, and no abnormal. Early on, “gay” meant happy, and now it is used primarily as a term for homosexuals. Most homosexuals prefer the term gay/lesbian rather than “homosexual”. However, they are now using the term G.L.B.T.Q which stands for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning. They use this new term so that no one is left out if they don’t feel like they fit in with being “gay”. Being gay is a part of who you are rather than what you are. You

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