A Fight For Acceptance - 1270 Words

A Fight for Acceptance Throughout history, many individuals have been looked down upon or mistreated due to a social stigma that is linked to a person’s sexual orientation. Members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT+) community have faced scrutiny for being â€Å"different† and â€Å"morally wrong† in the eyes of society. Recently, however, legislation passed a law making same-sex marriage legal in every state. This law changed the lives of many people because those people are now able to freely marry the person that they love, no matter what gender of the two people. Same-sex marriage becoming legal is a huge accomplishment for the LGBT+ community; they have not always had such a large crowd of supporters behind them. Before†¦show more content†¦The raid took place on June 28, 1969, and is considered the starting point of the gay rights movement. The reason it is considered the starting point is because it resulted in the first Gay Pri de parade, which took place on the one year anniversary of the Stonewall riots (Gay Rights Timeline 1). Some other big events for the LGBT+ community included homosexuality no longer being considered a mental illness in 1973, the AIDS crisis of 1981, and Rep. Barney Frank coming out as the first openly gay Congressman in 1987 (Gay Rights Timeline 1). While some of these events were negative and harmful to the people of the LGBT+ community, the world view of homosexuals began to change as the 90’s came to an end and the 2000’s began. Social media became increasingly more popular as the 2000s began, and the way that homosexuals are viewed by society is largely influenced by social media. Many people learn about the LGBT+ community through the internet and social media websites, but the majority of the exposure that some people have to homosexuals is through TV shows. Before the late 90s, it was almost unheard of to have a homosexual on a TV show, much less a whole TV sho w about one or multiple homosexuals. Beginning around 1998, homosexuality began to show up more frequently. Will and Grace was a TV show in which the main character, Will, was openly gay, and he lived with his straight best friend, Grace. Soon after, more and more TV shows began to feature homosexuals. For