I have recently taken on a small side business and changing paradigms is at the center of many trainings. Since this principle has been introduced to me, I began thinking about how the LGTBQIA community has been changing paradigms.
Change is not easy and many people are afraid of and resist change. People get comfortable in what is used to status quo, even when status quo is not great.
The LGTBQIA movement has been and continues to change established status quo all over the world which had been unsettling for individuals, families, governments and countries. From legalizing same sex marriage to the recognition of third gender, to the removal of mental illness classification to the decriminalization of certain sexual acts, this movement had been increasing exposure and equality for a vast minority of people worldwide. Personal paradigms have been and are changing and thus societies have as well.
In this country, from the Mattachine Society to the Stonewall Riots and Harvey Milk to Edie Falco, groups and individuals are no longer satisfied living in the status quo of inequality and injustice that the LGTBQIA community has historically experienced and are demanding change. From Barack Obama to Judy Shepard, family members and other straight allies are speaking out, drafting executive orders and standing up change. From the small pizza shops in Arizona to the NFL that have helped encouraged governors and legislators refrain from passing discriminatory legislation. They have changed paradigms.
Full equality has yet to be achieved and discrimination still runs rampant; but, huge changed has occurred in that members of the LGTBQIA community no longer have to live in the closet. Even prime time television has changed and our stories are no longer deamed inappropriate for children as they can even be seen on basic cable every evening. From 'Modern Family' to 'The Fosters' and 'Glee', issues concerning coming out to identifying as transgender to showing how 'normal' life living with two moms or two dads is, are central to these show's story lines.
Many traditionally conservative individuals have admitted that their paradigm was changed when they personally knew someone who came out. People who once believed that all gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer or intersex individuals were sinners and damned for Hell. People who believed that all LGTBQI individuals were pedophiles, perpetrators or perverts. Minds and hearts have been changed through personal encounters and stories.
For those who have had the courage to acknowledge a change in their own paradigm. For realizing and accepting that he, she or xe might not live the life he, she or xe expected or was planned out for he, she or xe. For those who have had the courage to change a family member's, boss', friend's, coworker's, teacher's, institution's or society's paradigm.
Happy pride y'all
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