Quote:
Originally posted by gloamingtheplain
I live in Australia and there is next to no LGBT hate, I know lots of straight people who are okay with gays, bi's etc.
Our government is lacking behind. From memory, the majority of Australia were pro same sex marriage.
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I disagree with you on that (except for what you said about our government). Most of Australia is favourable towards same sex marriage but there is still a hefty amount of citizens against it. In society in general, I feel like there is still a substantial stigma against gay people - particularly accelerated by high school students and elder people - although most young adults and adults do not demonstrate any type of homophobia. I'm still not comfortable enough to freely talk about my love and sex life with straight friends because of what I assume their perception of gay people is. To be more clear, I wouldn't tell my friend Emily about a guy I'm seeing because (I think) she would more than likely viewing me as "the gay friend" as opposed to just a "friend" (she doesn't know I'm gay). I just want to be treated equally to the fullest and not seen as "the gay friend" which is why I find it difficult to become close with straight people, to be honest. They just seem to not get it - that I don't want to be associated with stereotypically 'gay' things because I'm a male that like guys and because I don't typically demonstrate such behaviour. Doing that is a close-minded thing to do, no matter how accepting you claim you are, and it still substantially exists/occurs.
The use of the word "******" (six letter long f word) and homophobic slurs are still a big problem. They're no more inappropriate than racist slurs yet a lot of people still boldly use them.