this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024
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Times did change though, quite a lot even.
I'm not LGBTQ+ so I can only say what I know from other people. But when you speak to older gay people, boomer gays and such, they tell you awfuly heartbreaking stories.
Of course gays and other LGBTQ+ folx still get hated on and discriminated and there is still a long, long way to go.
But that doesn't change, that nowadays you can publish loveletters of two men, without destroying the lives of each person involved. Back then, the letter writers would have probably ended up in prison and everyone else with knowledge of them or any kind of involvement would loose their jobs and carrers and would have been shunned. Someone responsible publishing them or making a film about them, would probably go to prison too.
So yes. I'd call this a more enlightened time compared to Europe in the 1930'/40's.
The 1920's were starting to become enlightened... which only fueled the facists hate. Were currently in that same situation, but this time we must let the facists know they are weak and wont hurt anymore people this time.
Yeah, not the same thing and a couple decades earlier but Wilde's "De Profundis" is a useful contrast.