Walking across the Green toward Collis, I feel my egalitarian heart swell at the sight of the flapping rainbow stripes of the Pride flag. Such a beautiful sight would not have been possible just one generation ago. Since the ascendance of the then-nascent movement from draconian anti-LGBTQ laws and the Stonewall riots, we have come a long way as a country. From time to time, it’s rejuvenating to acknowledge the progress that we’ve made and reinvigorating to know that we can continue to change.
Stonewall is etched into gay civil rights history in the same way that Montgomery, Greensboro and Selma are in black history. The Stonewall riots, named for the Greenwich Village inn that was the preeminent gay bar in New York City, began after a police raid on the establishment. In 1969 New York, homosexuality was prohibited in public by law. Fed up with discrimination based on their sexual orientation, customers of the bar and other members of the gay community rioted in the streets.
Progress, as College President Phil Hanlon reminds us, is hard work, and unlike teleological theories of history, contending that there is a final, definite end to which progress inevitably marches is facile. Instead, there are swells and pockets of forces for change, often from social movements, which recede and surge depending on the time.
In the 45 years since the riots, a lot has changed. It was just 11 years ago that the Supreme Court struck down Texas’s — and 13 other states’ — law that prohibited sodomy in the case of Lawrence v. Texas. According to Gallup, in 1996 only 27 percent of Americans believed that marriage between same-sex couples should be recognized by the law as valid, and in 2009, 40 percent, by 2013, 54 percent supported it. In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to recognize same-sex marriage. Since then, 16 other states have joined the Bay State.
Nonetheless, we still have a lot of work to do. The U.S. lags behind other nations in societal acceptance and recognition of homosexuality. According to the Pew Research Center’s 2013 Global Attitudes Project, 60 percent of Americans believe that society should accept homosexuality. Compared to Canada (80 percent), Spain (88 percent), Germany (87 percent) and France, Britain and Italy (all above 74 percent), the U.S. is shamefully intolerant.
There are still 33 states that do not allow marriage equality. And on this campus — and the nation at large — homophobia still unfortunately permeates much of public opinion.
But we are improving, and we are making efforts to construct a more accepting environment for all people, regardless of their sexual orientation. When some on campus use “gay” as a pejorative accusation, I have seen many others on campus correct the error.
I don’t seek to write a self-congratulatory column, because problems certainly still exist for members of the LGBTQ community. Further, I don’t purport to know the difficulties of being gay, but I imagine it is not easy to face prejudice of any kind. But recognizing our progress, instead of leading to an effete complacency, can reinvigorate us. Analysts often report that we millennials are selfish, cynical and disillusioned. In a certain manner, we have good cause to be cynical. Between war in this or that part of the globe, paralysis of government, mass shootings and worsening socioeconomic inequality, reading the news or the opinion pages can be as morbid as reading obituaries. Everywhere we look or read, we see discouraging news. Being aware is often disheartening. Sometimes we shield ourselves through apathy.
So from time to time, let’s look at how far we’ve come. Progress can happen. We are witnesses to it. So instead of giving up at the overwhelming array of issues our generation faces, let’s deepen our resolve that we are masters of our fate, even if something as simple as a Pride flag on a May afternoon gives us that confidence.
