And what have you done, Joe?
Not much.
In many ways, it’s as bad for lgbtq+ people as it was in the 90s, especially trans kids. Suicide rates are sky high for these folks, and the bigotry is everywhere. It’s disgusting.
And you’re silent.
I think you mean to direct this comment to republican lawmakers who are ACTIVELY making lives worse for LGBTQ+ people. The president does not have legislative powers in this country. What do you expect the president to be able to do when the republican-run legislatures and courts have gone rogue? A proclamation here and there (literally he just did this), or an executive order (which he has signed multiple over the course of the administration). These however are easily undone by the other branches or government or by former president shitbag if he retakes the throne. I’m not sure how you can claim silence from the administration. Frustration with the whole situation, sure, but you can’t pin this on Biden.
I can’t pin it on Biden, but Democrats had the majority in the House and Senate for the first 2 years of his presidency. They had the opportunity to protect LGBTQ+ people. The catch is that they would have had to end the filibuster forever. They chose to protect the filibuster.
Are you sure? I thought it was just a slim majority in the house. At no point were both majority Dems.
Although downvotes are not everything and maybe Lemmy skews one way.
I do have to ask, looking back now considering you got ratio’d. Do you take a look at your argument and see if perhaps you’re incorrect or just double down?
Not trying to call you out here. Just wondering how people with completely differing thoughts on a topic look back at them.
Clearly here it isn’t up for debate that Reps control the legislation and not the Democratic president, so your last comment is wild to me.
Things are bad right now, really bad, but they’re not as bad as they were in the 90s. Not even close.
That’s just how bad the 90s were.
Me, a gay teen in the 90s, being actually afraid for my life while holding the hand of my SO in public.
Now? I’ve got a fuckin’ flag.
People forget history when it works for them.
In many ways, it’s as bad for lgbtq+ people as it was in the 90s,
NOT EVEN FUCKING CLOSE. Absolutely stupid take.
Who’s having a tantrum?
It’s a stupid take. Objectively stupid.
Have a nice day!
(this reads like a rant but it’s a message of remembrance and reflection)
Rose-colored glasses? I remember my realization in the 90s and being in the closet for the entire 00s. Me and other queer peers were terrified of our own family, openly being mocked in school by students and faculty, I have friends that have attempted suicide more times than I have fingers per person. You should not know the ER staff on a first-name basis. Friends who didn’t reveal they were trans until they were in their 30s and separated from anyone but their closest, most trusted friends. Friends who still, after years of therapy, are still suffering from depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. And this spreads wide with the people I grew up with. It’d actually genuinely be difficult to think of someone in my extended social circle that didn’t have the view that school was literal hell because of the constant belittling, insulting, second-class treatment from everyone from the students to the principal (I can think of literally just one individual). We had at least one person I know of who viewed the Columbine shooters as someone they looked up to, because of how badly they were treated at a place where you are supposed to be safe.
It’s not all rainbows and unicorns now, but it’s a stark contrast to what it was 20+ years ago. Children shouldn’t have to wonder if they are going to be stabbed or shot or beaten by so-called ‘adults’ and ‘caregivers’ for who they like. They shouldn’t be scared of being put out on the fucking street for taking their partner to prom. They shouldn’t have to create a second life of lies and then mirror that data around so if anyone questions anyone in the friend circle, the stories match up.
A child/teenager should be happy and joyous, not like a fucking prison sentence. 20 years ago, it was. I lived that hell, many of us did. Abuse everywhere you turned, even if you were still in the closet (to everyone but us). People were absolute terrible bastards, but the victims are changing that, because we are the people those fucks who call themselves adults should have been. Everyone I’ve spoken about is in a better place now - scarred physically, suffering from mental trauma, often still questioning why they don’t make today their last, every single day. But we are still here, we have always supported each other, and we want this hellhole to never be experienced by others ever again. A tall order, but we are trying.
I’m sure there’s thousands, shit, millions of others just like us. We are the shy, timid ones, boiling in our memories of bullshit, our permanent rage. Suffering one last time in the hopes that others don’t have to. Out in the world, some of us just want peace and quiet, to be left alone and forgotten, as their defense. Some carry weapons, due to their location and popular opinion against them. Some relocated to more accepting parts of the world, many right out of high school. But we all want all of us to live safer, happier, better lives. Together, we make progress, bit by bit.
My siblings and their friends, I hear them talk about things now and then. A few years makes a huge difference in tolerance - two decades might as well be completely different planets.
Just don’t pretend or romanticize years past, is all I’m saying. Progress is forward, not backward.
i was there too, like you and you’re forgetting that biden actively actively made the situation back in the 90’s and 00’s worse by voting against gay marriage; against gays in the military; and advocating against gays in federal service.
things got better in spite of biden et al. efforts; not because of them.
I’m not the one pretending here. No progress has been made during this administration.
My brother in christ it takes literally one Google search to see how utter bullshit this take is.
https://www.hrc.org/resources/president-bidens-pro-lgbtq-timeline
One that struck me is how Biden handled monkeypox. Under Trump, monkeypox would have been a “gay disease” that would have not been taken seriously at all. The Biden administration took it seriously and now I’ve completely forgotten it was a thing.
Go take your lunch break Dimitri.
The problem with getting all your news from social media is that when you surround yourself with people who only share the one kind of news, you don’t get all of the other news that is very important.
As other people are saying to you, all you have to do is look for it and you will find a list of the pro-lgbt actions this administration has done.
Weren’t you just criticizing someone for invalidating your experiences? That’s exactly what you’re doing right now to the person above.
If they say shit is much better for them and their loved ones right now, don’t say they’re just pretending that’s the case. If you want to be respected for saying things are personally no better for you, don’t tell someone else they’re just pretending if they say things are better for them now.
Otherwise you just come off as an incredibly disingenuous asshole.
My man, did you live in the 90’s? Cause it kinda sounds like you don’t know what you’re talking about
I did. Don’t tell me what I did and didn’t see or live through.
How arrogant and presumptuous of you to think you could presume my entire life experience from a few internet comments.
Oh, and making personal attacks to further your position just highlights how weak your argument is.
Oof I pressed a nerve, okay, let me rephrase. What you said doesn’t make sense because to anyone with half a brain at the time, being gay in the 90s was fucking awful. And that’s not a personal attack, a personal attack would be you sound like either a troll or delusional, and in either case you clearly have a poor grasp on your emotions judging from how defensive you got.
Would you be willing to tell us about it? Why is life so much worse now than the period of stuff like the AIDS crisis, Section 28 and Romer v Evans… Before the widespread recognition and legalization of same sex marriage and the lowered barriers for trans people to change their identification documents that resulted.
I think you have people legitimately confused for your reasons because a lot of that history is painted as essentially a war and mass genocide by inaction primarily of lesbian, gay and bisexual people. While I know of a few of my trans elders have said that there was less individual heat on trans identities as there are now, it still doesn’t seem like on the whole it was a great time. People were still murdered for being trans and a lot of the fight for non-binary trans people were struggling with much deeper form of erasure.
I think people are concerned that what you are putting forward is your personal experience which may be narrower than the full encompassing experience of the entire LGBTQIA which it is assumed the question is being asked about. The birds eye veiw, of all the identities and the culture of the movement from that full ten year span. It’s generally assumed by younger people that most things are better now because at least we aren’t dropping like flies so it’s natural that the reaction to your opinion is disbelief.
*Edit, Removed an example event that was in the eighties.
less than not much; he literally voted against gay marriage; gays in the military; and publicly supported banning gays from federal service.
then again he did sit and do nothing for decades to opportunistically switch sides to cash in on votes after we & hollywood worked our entire lives to change american hearts and minds on gay people.
Over 300 anti LGBTQ laws passed by republicans and Dems haven’t done shit to counter them. Hollow, meaningless rhetoric doesn’t save lives.
He’s done the bare minimum, at least. Could do a whole lot more Joe but… he won’t.
A Proclamation on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Pride Month, 2024
I’ll second this question. I’ve seen a bunch of “hasn’t done enough” but it hasn’t been followed up with what that is. OP could you please share the solutions Biden has at his disposal that aren’t being executed?
I ask this as someone who is ignorant of those, not trying to argue.
Biden could have put massive pressure on his party to pass the Equality Act to safeguard the rights of people of any sexuality or gender. He could have done so fiercely and publicly, and campaigned in the home states of those like Manchin and Sinema to threaten their seats if they did not comply.
Dems, who just love their identity politics, could have been actual allies during the first 2 years of Biden’s presidency while they held the supermajority and passed this, but chose not to. Are you really surprised? For the second time in as many decades, they also chose not to codify Roe v Wade, and this time it cost us women’s bodily autonomy.
