It doesn't have to be like that

Sep 10, 2015 09:37

Blimey, things have changed for queer people in Britain.

It was bloody awful in the mid/late 80s when I started struggling with my own sexuality. Section 28, HIV the 'gay plague', and if school authorities made any reference to homophobic bullying it was to enforce it.

Things have changed so much and so fast in the generation since then I still can't quite believe it. I was totally blown away when my Tory MP made an impassioned speech in the Commons ... about how grim coming out had been back then and so they really should vote in favour of same-sex marriage, which they then did.

**FIXME has started a new school this week (middle, on the lower/middle/upper system), and I've just discovered that in Music, they're singing "A Little Respect" by Erasure.

I vividly remember being terrified whenever that came on, for fear someone would notice I liked it. Then a few years later, loving the freedom to go crazy on the dance floor when it came on. Now they're all singing it in school, in lessons!

I don't think I could be more moved if they were singing Tom Robinson's "Glad To Be Gay" with the bisexual verse at the end.

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personal, queer

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