The Myth Of Gay Oppression Poem by Alyssa Sutherland

Gay people aren't oppressed.
Ok ok, now before you call me crazy hear me out. I have a lot of gay friends in my life. Matter of fact I just attended my best friends gay wedding the other day Fmy first gay wedding! Oh, and now that we're on the topic, I'm not one of those crazy old bats that think gays shouldn't get married. In fact, I believe that sharing marriage with gay folk is essential so they can know what true suffering feels like as well.
I just simply don't understand how someone could look at the gay community and think "oh they're so oppressed, poor them! "
I think one reason we associate gay people with oppression so closely is probably because we're so busy dwelling on the past, that we can't see what's in front of us. Now, I will admit that ten or fifteen years ago, the gays did not have the liberty to be as free as they are now, and their have been crimes committed against the gay community in the past. But now, in our current day and age, when so many big companies and names are in support of the LGBT Rights movement, and even the former president of the united states decided to deem June as "Pride Month" for gay people, we have to ask the question; are the gays really oppressed? Or are they just crying wolf and begging for attention at this point?



I mean, let's look at the facts without letting our emotions get the best of us. sixty three percent of Americans support gay marriage, a VAST majority. This year over two million people attended New York City pride. Even people that aren't gay! Hell, even my neighbor and his two teacup dogs attended pride! And we can't ignore the fact that America is the safest place to be openly gay in the world as of right now. I mean, in the past fifteen or twenty years, I can only imagine that hate crimes based on sexual orientation have gone down! Remember that gay kid who was killed in Laramie, Wyoming? Matthew Shepard? That happened in nineteen ninety-eight, Almost twenty years ago! And even back then it was considered a big frickin' deal. Hell, they even made a whole play about him! Basically half the nation was in grief for this one gay kid they didn't even know. That was twenty years ago. Fast forward to today. When was the last time you've heard of an incident even remotely similar to Matthew Shepard's?
Exactly. You haven't.
You haven't because if there was, there would be protests and uprisings across the nation, even more than there were for Matthew Shepard. And in a nation that prides itself on acceptance and tolerance to a fault, a crime to that degree would never happen.