Submitted 5 days ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Depends on the country and their social circle.
Boomers have little to do with it. Boomers normalized contraception, were among the first generations to discuss sex openly and played a significant role in changing attitudes toward homosexuality, from being widely criminalized to becoming more socially accepted in many countries.
Even if boomers die there will unfortunately still be conservatives and religious people of all ages that oppose anything other than being straight.
I was outted to my highly conservative and religious family by a Jesus-freak aunt who stalked my now deleted social media. I would not have chosen to come out to my family, it’s been just as horrible as I assumed it would be.
I currently work in a conservative Southern US town and I’m not out at work for safety purposes. I have been out in all my other jobs, this is the only one where it feels unsafe to be so. I’m seriously considering a career change at this point.
With my partner and my chosen family, I’m my fully queer and sparkly self✨️. It depends a lot on environment for many folks, I imagine. I’ve witnessed just as many young evangelicals spew hatred as boomers so idk how generational it is tbh. I think it’s largely a religious issue, but I have a chip on my shoulder when it comes to Christianity, so grains of salt with that last bit.
I’m so sorry, that must be exhausting.
Yes, and it’s not just boomers. Apart from obvious homophobic responses you have to come out over and over again if the people you are interacting with are making assumptions about you.
People default to cishet norms so imagine being asked about your husband when you have a wife and now you feel like you have to correct them. Everyone in the situation now has to decide how to respond. Its awkward as fuck. Or when someone’s eyes get wide after you mention your wife in passing, or use a female name for your partner. Now you need to understand if they are going to be a problem.
I remember running into a higher up and her family at a coffee shop and her shying saying, “Oh, these are my people.” I realized I knew nothing about her personal life (we didn’t work closely). I felt so bad that she had to think about how I could react instead of just introducing them.
In terms of like kids coming out to family/friends there will always be that fear of rejection. It’s a scary thing to say, “hey I’m not that thing you assumed I was”. Further, I think generally shrugs are discouraged - if the person is making announcement it generally means it is important to them, so it may be best supportive to meet that energy.
In this day and age we have conservative and even far-right openly homosexual politicians who actively work on anti-gay policies. So it seems to me that some people never get their heads out of the closet.
*In this day and age
I live in a pretty conservative area, but the kids don’t seem to have much problem being open and honest about who they are.
Of course, certain people may live in a very unforgiving home, and that could effect their personal experience, but for the most part, it seems to me people are more likely to skip the closet and just be themselves.
As the other comments have stated, it is highly dependent on where you’re located and the people you surround yourself with.
Sometimes it’s difficult to “come out of the closet” due to one’s own insecurities or fears and has little to do with it being acceptable or not.
I used to live in a place that was supposedly progressive. rah rah gay marriage and everything. But there was still a performance of normativity that was expected above everything else. Lesbians are fine as long as they’re perceivably afab and gay is good as long as you’re a bear. Otherwise people make it your problem in your professional life.
I’d say if you’re trying to judge the safety in your community look at who isn’t tolerated and the actual price of not being tolerated. It’s usually a little steeper than “people might not like me”
It depends on if the closet is locked or not
AnAmericanPotato@programming.dev 5 days ago
Depends on where you live, and what kind of social circles you’re in.
In some places, you might get a shrug.
In other places, you might get murdered.
Or anything in between.