Going Too Slow

WHEN I WAS A KID, way back in the nineteen sixties, the worst insult one kid could hurl at another was the word "queer". I knew that word as an insult long before I knew what it meant. The other curse of choice was "queer bait". I still don't know what that one means, and somehow I'm still happy, so I figure I really don't need to know. To accuse someone of being gay as an insult was perfectly natural, back in the day, since American mainstream conservative Christian society detested homosexuals. It was illegal in all fifty states to engage in homosexual behavior, punishable by time in prison. Homosexuality was also formally listed as and considered to be a mental illness. Gay people often ended up in nut houses. So, you can see why the word "queer", meaning weird or different and therefore horrible, made a good insult. Back then nobody was gay, or admitted to being gay. Nobody dared. Gay people back then were deeper in the closet than Christmas decorations in August, terrified to be honest about themselves. You can imagine why. So, you could say things have changed. You could also probably say things haven't changed fast enough, or completely, that its taken way too long, and required way too much effort and acrimony to bring even a modicum of dignity and respect for gay and lesbian human beings. It almost makes you wonder what's been holding us back, what forces have encouraged society to resist social equality, to resist change, to resist treating gays and lesbians equally, and what forces have fought for or encouraged societal change, what we have achieved, and what we still need to achieve. Never, for instance, have I ever heard a Christian minister say anything about gays and lesbians deserving equal treatment, or condemning their traditional persecution by mainstream society. Never. Not once. But I have heard many a minister either insinuate or come right out and say straight up that homosexuality is a sin, which probably does not help the cause of equal rights for all. To assert vociferously and incessantly from the pulpit that sexual orientation is not a sin, and that God doesn't care if you're gay, might be a far preferable endeavor strategically, purely from the perspective of nurturing a happy, healthy, harmonious culture and furthering the sacred cause of equal civil rights for all citizens. Right?