How Gay Marriage has Wedded the Gay Rights Movement to Acceptance - not Equality
- slingshotmagazine
- Feb 4, 2019
- 1 min read
Updated: Mar 11, 2019
by Susanna Joseph
In March 2019, it will be five years since same sex marriage was legalised in the United Kingdom. The ruling came for many as a colossal moment, a signal that the Gay Rights Movement had broken through the mainstream once and for all and settled into a comfortable place in society’s consciousness.
However, that assurance may have been premature. Hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people have been rising steadily over those 5 years, and still the community is yet to overcome relatively basic challenges like being recognised in the national sex education curriculum. If anything, the marriage ruling has stagnated the push for equality the last half century has seen. Activists and commentators like journalist Gina Tonic believe that far from accepting the battle is won, society should not be turning away from the very real issues still affecting LGBTQ+ people everywhere, especially those who do not fit into the ‘Love is Love’ marriage narrative.
“Gay marriage has always been about fitting the queer experience into the norm and while that makes a majority of mainstream LGBTQ+ people ecstatic, it makes those that don't want it feel even more outcast than accepted. Pursuing queerness outside of following a heterosexual life plan is still frowned upon but those who fit into the nuclear family model are assimilated. Wanting this is not a negative but a society that only accepts a cleansed and palatable LGBT+ experience is.”
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