Are there any remaining political battles for gays and lesbians?

Still legal to get fired for being gay

Societal acceptance

And of course, dropping the T.

Yes, dropping the T.

Does this mean that the State of Kansas can no longer deny health insurance coverage for same sex spouses? If so, then we've come a long way, baby.

Authentic acceptance. Not just legislation and lip service from the straights. Speaking as a Canadian 10 years already down the road, you will find that 'gay-married' people will always be held in a different light than 'straight-married' people. There is no way around it. You'll see.

Interesting r4 -- how are the gay marriages treated differently?

There is still no Federal protection of non-discrimination based on sexual orientation, although many states, local municipalities, -and individual companies (including all that do business with the Federal government) have non-discrimination laws or policies. In many places in the USA, a person can still be terminated from employment or face other discrimination based on sexual orientation.

10 years isn't that long a time in a society R4.

In many places gay people still have no job, housing, etc protection because they are gay.

Despite the myth of gay affluence, gay males still earn far less than straight men.

Gay teens are still bullied in school. There are not accurate gay characters shown in movies and television. Gay men are still marrying straight women. Almost nude men on the covers of mainstream magazines and advertisements are absent. Male-bonding is discouraged. Anyone else care to add to the list?

R4) You are so correct. I know people in my job who have transferred across the country and have had a more difficult time. While my job is inclusive, the laws are non discriminatory, people are what they are. There are smaller areas in parts of the country that still have that division.

Ahem...

[quote]Are there any remaining political battles for gays and lesbians?

From a global perspective, we're just getting started. There are still several countries where marriage equality has not yet passed despite having made great strides in other areas related to gay rights, and there are still places where just being gay is illegal and punishable by death.

And there is still a lot of work left to be done in areas related to employment discrimination.

What a RIDICULOUS and NAIVE statement

Marriage equality was just about legal equality. Discrimination is still rampant and will be, for generations to come. Now.....the LGBTs in America at least, have most of the legal tools to fight against discrimination.

The fight against discrimination has barely begun.

Look at what happened in Canada 6 months after equality was passed by the courts in 2005....Straight Canadians back lashed and elected the most anti-gay right wing government, ever to exist in Canadian history. Basically the Canadian equivalent of the Tea Party, which then tried, only months after elected, to reverse gay equality. They lost BUT they are still in power today.

It has just started.....

R12) Yes, and it's getting worse in the Ukraine and Russia. Also, given the advance of ISIS, people who "look" gay, based on their hair cuts and clothing are being killed.

OP = I took a penicillin tablet, so I guess STDs have been banish from the earth for all eternity now.

The next CRITICAL battle is passing ENDA ... the Employee Non-Discrimination Act.

It's great that gay couples can marry in every single State now, but in more than half of them, their employer can fire them for no other reason than getting married to someone of the same sex. Seriously.

So that's the next battle. And it's a vitally important one.

I will do everything I can to oppose ENDA if the trannies use it to get into women's restrooms.

Very funny, OP troll. I know, this is the meme on the right today: gays got marriage, now onto world domination and putting all the Christians in jail. Reality: yes, we celebrate this weekend, and rightly so. But don't worry your little head. We'll get back to work on Monday.

[quote]So (ENDA) is the next battle.

It should have been the first battle -- the last 20 years have been the worst economically for gays, and marriage is hetero-normative rather than liberating.

Getting Meryl her 4th and 5th Oscar seems like the only thing left.

OP here. I am not trolling, it is a serious question.

I've lived in California for the last 26 years and I've participated in two significant political mobilizations pertaining to the queer community -- the first was relating to HIV/AIDS attention, awareness and research, and the second was marriage equality. CA has included sexual orientation in its state anti-discrimination legislation as long as I can remember. I was genuinely unaware that anti-gay discrimination in employment and housing is still not illegal in several states. So thanks for the heads up.

I guess my question is really whether married, middle-aged gays and lesbians will still feel like there are political battles to be waged here in the U.S. Or is the age of gay/lesbian political activism over? I don't know that gay/lesbian identity is even significant to millennials, so who will mobilize them? I am deliberately excluding the "B" and the "T" because I don't agree that their issues always align with gays and lesbians.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

R20 Why are SJW talking points so departed from reality and facts? What data show is that gay people (more actually gay men more than lesbians) have seen their income increase since the mid 2000s, when straight people (especially men) lost wealth. What's more, with marriage gay unions will increase in stability, as is known to happen among opposite sex couples, which will in turn confer financial stability. And this is to say nothing of the tax benefits that follow marriage.

Very US centric view you have. You should ask people in Africa, Asia and some parts of LatAm what they think of your statement/question.

Job and housing protections.

I suspect many of you will violently disagree with this, but I sometimes feel the biggest battles gay men face in their lives are with each other. Homophobia is only one part of what we have to deal with. gay men can be very toxic with each other, even competetive. It is no wonder many, mybe most of us struggle to find meaningful relationships, if we want them. I can deal with homophobia as I can sort of understand it. What I struggle to deal with is interactions with other gay men sadly. If we are not emotionally damaged we are poisonous, or just distant, i know these are coping mechanisms, but maybe we should look into ourselves a bit as much as battling the external foes? Sometimes the enemies within are just as damaging!

Biggest battle is coming . Battling against Trans Cult.

Only good thing about it is that we are not alone in this battle. Almost every other section of society is being bullied by Trans cult

Drop the T!

I agree the biggest battles are with each other! Gay men don't really like themselves and project that on each other !!

Yes. Self-loathing. Gay bashings. Job discrimination and being fired because you are gay. Gay for pay homophobia.

That's it R30.

It's the saddest part about being gay the self loathing that is internalised. The way we self destruct and call it 'hedonism' the willful betrayals, and self-delusion.

The next battle is for your life against the Muslim infidels who want to throw you off buildings. Gay men are treated even worse than women in Muslim religion.

Why don't gay men treat themselves and other gay men well? ever asked that question? All very well saying the threat is 'out there' and it is often, but it is also within.

Getting the T to drop the G and the L. What do they want with us? They hate us. Go away, T.

The discrimination I've experienced largely supports R27's suggestion. Sure, I've had random experiences with neighbors discovering that I'm gay and making rude remarks, the odd one-off comment or reaction of strangers, but the real discrimination came from gay men. The worst was on the job working with an exclusively gay group of 5 other guys, and getting fired after a minor disagreement over an accounting practice. Long story short, I wanted to follow generally accepted principles, the guy in charge wanted to risk an audit and dealing with the huge cleanup if caught in a situation that small companies get nailed on all the time. He turned it into a discrimination thing, saying it was because I was jealous of him and his boyfriend, and then hurled some of the worst anti-gay epithets I'd ever experienced. And then it got really nasty.

Gay men internalize homophobia and redirect it at one another in a variety of ways. It's really sad. Our fight for equality overall is hindered by this misdirected hatred all the time. Even here on DL, disagreements turn into opportunities to discriminate; just look at any of the threads on sex, condoms and/or Truvada. It's hard to deal with growing up as "the other" and, apparently, harder to let that mindset go.

After my horrible experience, I chalked it up to my naïve thinking that our commonality of being gay would overcome petty differences. As a good friend told me shortly after this all happened, nobody oppresses like the oppressed. I'm hopeful that as gays become more and more accepted into mainstream culture that this special brand of discrimination stops, but I also have to be pragmatic and say I'm not holding my breath.

Gays all suffer from PTSD. The shame and stigma is just too much for us to emerge with an intact psyche and a healthy outlook on lif. So we live as if we are at war.

Not me R38.

You only speak for yourself. 😊

[quote]Or will the queer community disappear completely into the mainstream? HIV/AIDS is treatable and a global health priority. Marriage equality has a Constitutional basis and same-sex marriage is accorded all the same protections as opposite-sex marriage.

OP - you're absolutely right. Gay people are on a completely equal footing in society.

I mean, ever since the abortion question was decided with Roe v. Wade, there have been no attempts to roll back reproductive rights. Reproductive rights have been a settled question for 40 years, and no one has fought the constitutionality of it.

We should all just sit back and enjoy our hard fought victory, now that everyone has agreed that gay people have equal rights and no one is denying them.

What a marooon.

[quote]Still legal to get fired for being gay

Still legal to get fired for being a white male in all 50 states.

Get the fuck over it.

Lots of gay people's greatest battle is self-loathing.

BULLYING! I grew up being bullied, and there is no indication that this sort of evil is abating in any manner. Granted, kids are bullied not just for being gay. I have a problem with pushing for gay marriage while bullying is still rampant. The priorities are terribly misplaced!

Bullying is a fact of life.

r44, so are murder and robbery. But they are illegal. Just try being bullied and see how you like it. There are many institutions set up with antigay bullying in mind, schools in particular.

Bullyng is a fact of life. There's anti-gay bullying, anti-Jew bullying, anti-black bullying, anti-white bullying. In my high school, I saw it all. Touphen up!

Toughen

The huge disparity in health and wellness, including mental health

No, I maintain that bullying is by far the most urgent.

Oh, maybe the increase of Islamic migrants who want gays dead?

R50 Let them practice their religion, bigot!!!!!1111