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- Jul 23, 2005
i think it's a combination of a lot of things.
in this country, pop culture reigns supreme... so i think having openly gay stars and characters just being themselves on tv was huge. ellen, will and grace, the real world, modern family, etc... even most soap operas and dramas eventually had at least one storyline featuring gay characters. it allowed people to see that we're no different from anyone else. i think back to the 80s and early 90s of my childhood and i honestly can't think of a single gay character on tv... that would've been huge for me. instead, i felt like i was different and it made me deeply ashamed, even through college.
politically, things were slower to develop. the first domino came the year after i graduated, when massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage. i think at that point it seemed like the tide might finally be shifting, albeit slowly.
i'll admit i've been surprised at how quickly it seemed to have changed over just the past couple of years.
in this country, pop culture reigns supreme... so i think having openly gay stars and characters just being themselves on tv was huge. ellen, will and grace, the real world, modern family, etc... even most soap operas and dramas eventually had at least one storyline featuring gay characters. it allowed people to see that we're no different from anyone else. i think back to the 80s and early 90s of my childhood and i honestly can't think of a single gay character on tv... that would've been huge for me. instead, i felt like i was different and it made me deeply ashamed, even through college.
politically, things were slower to develop. the first domino came the year after i graduated, when massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage. i think at that point it seemed like the tide might finally be shifting, albeit slowly.
i'll admit i've been surprised at how quickly it seemed to have changed over just the past couple of years.