{"id":512,"date":"2019-05-07T21:59:24","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T21:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/13\/?page_id=512"},"modified":"2019-08-05T18:41:54","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T18:41:54","slug":"what-we-mean-when-we-talk-about-gay-rights","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/13\/lgbtq-network\/what-we-mean-when-we-talk-about-gay-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"What We Really Mean When We Talk About Gay Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
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What we really mean when we talk about gay rights<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Liberal stances often coexist with anti-gay biases, even among heterosexuals who choose to live in cities\u2019\u2019 gay enclaves.<\/p>\n

By\u00a0AMIN GHAZIANI<\/a><\/p>\n

JUN 10, 2018 |\u00a04:10 AM (LOS ANGELES TIMES)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Every year the polling organization\u00a0Gallup<\/a>\u00a0takes America\u2019s pulse on gay rights. A random sample of more than 1,000 Americans adults is asked whether \u201cgay or lesbian relations\u201d between consenting adults are \u201cmorally acceptable or morally wrong.\u201d Over the 17 years Gallup has looked at this issue, the trend has been steeply positive, a shift that has influenced public policy, political candidates, civil rights claims and Supreme Court cases. The 2018 survey found that 67% of the population embraces moral acceptability.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But when we talk about\u00a0acceptance<\/em>\u00a0related to sexual diversity, as many of us are right now during\u00a0LGBTQ Pride Month<\/a>, what is really being offered? If you\u2019re gay, exactly how far does being found \u201cmorally acceptable\u201d by two-thirds of your fellow Americans get you? Maybe not as far as you think, even among your most progressive neighbors.<\/p>\n

Research by sociologists<\/a>\u00a0shows that heterosexuals are willing to extend \u201cformal rights\u201d to same-sex couples \u2014 policies such as family leave, hospital visitation, inheritance rights and insurance benefits. Yet they are unwilling to grant them \u201cinformal privileges\u201d such as the freedom to express affection in public places by holding hands or sharing a kiss \u2014 or whether they can get a custom wedding cake.<\/p>\n

As a professor, I have spent nearly a decade trying to learn about this contradiction \u2014 particularly among those who say they are liberal-minded. My research has brought me face-to-face with the heterosexual residents of urban gay districts, or \u201cgayborhoods<\/a>,\u201d of big American cities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve learned how fine the line is between progress and prejudice, and how broad statistics about public opinion conceal the subtle forms of discrimination that now routinely surface between gay and straight neighbors. The majority of the straight people that I\u2019ve spoken with during my research said that they supported gay civil rights, felt a common humanity with gay people (\u201cwe\u2019re all just people\u201d) and had positive views about the integration of gay spaces in the city (gayborhoods are \u201cwelcoming,\u201d \u201cinclusive,\u201d and \u201copen\u201d environments where we can all \u201cthrive together,\u201d I was told). But these liberal stances were often unsupported by concrete actions, or even coexisted with other anti-gay biases. This is what I call \u201cperformative progressiveness<\/a>\u201d: It\u2019s easier to talk a good talk than to walk it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Many of my interviewees who described themselves as \u201cliberal\u201d and \u201caccepting\u201d of homosexuality remained apathetic about the causes and consequences of social inequality. They freely reported that they do not donate money to LGBTQ nonprofit organizations, do not march in protests for LGBTQ rights, and do not write to their congressperson expressing their support for favorable pieces of legislation. Instead, they felt that having an address in a gayborhood was enough to give them progressive street cred. (Some also claimed to live among a \u201cdiverse\u201d population, even though their local gayborhood lacked racial or ethnic diversity.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some straight people saw themselves as \u201cgay-blind,\u201d much like a white person might say that she is \u201ccolorblind\u201d toward race and racial discrimination. But to say that being gay is a \u201cnonfactor\u201d is strategic for straights; it allows them to exempt themselves from political engagement and material support. Straight residents also cited \u201creverse discrimination.\u201d Specifically they felt excluded from LGBTQ spaces or businesses, such as when a gay-owned bakery in Chicago instituted a no-child policy. Others accused LGBTQ activists who championed their own spaces as \u201csegregationist,\u201d \u201cseparatist\u201d or \u201cheterophobic.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Across America,\u00a0larger numbers<\/a>\u00a0of straight people have moved into gayborhoods. When I asked about this trend, a straight man told me that gays and lesbians should \u201cbe happy\u201d about it, rather than focusing so much on prejudice, discrimination and inequality. He waved his index finger in my face and said in an elevated voice, \u201cYou wanted equality! You wanted your rights! You wanted to get married! This is it!\u201d Equality somehow became my fault. When I pressed straight residents to talk about ways anti-gay discrimination persists \u2014 things like hate crimes or housing discrimination \u2014 I was told to \u201cget over it.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Researchers and activists often talk about \u201coppression fatigue,\u201d a side-effect of confronting discrimination and inequity without really being able to do anything about it. What I encountered struck me as \u201cprivilege fatigue,\u201d a frustration resulting from the cognitive dissonance between progressive attitudes and conservative-to-apathetic behavior.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I interviewed 53 straight people who lived in two Chicago gayborhoods. Their sentiments reflected a much larger pattern that has also been captured by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. In its\u00a02018 Accelerating Acceptance Report<\/a>\u00a0GLAAD found Americans\u2019 comfort level with LGBTQ people backslid in recent years: The survey of more than 2,000 adults, done by the Harris Poll, found 4 percentage points fewer heterosexual \u201callies\u201d and a corresponding jump in \u201cdetached supporters.\u201d In a\u00a02015 study<\/a>\u00a0that went more in-depth on same-sex marriage, GLAAD also found:<\/p>\n