For most of us, the idea of being discriminatory against someone’s sexual or gender identity is a completely foreign concept. But sadly, there’s still a lot of homophobia in the world.
The good news about that is that many homophobic people eventually learn that the LGBT+ community is full of wonderful, normal people. These self-proclaimed former homophobes of Reddit shared what made them realize that being gay isn’t a problem .
“When a dude in my English class shared his family cut him out for being gay and he had no family willing to help.”
“I didn’t know that was common and the class rallied around him.”
“In middle school I remember thinking anyone who was gay/bi was just doing it for attention.”
“Like, similar to how people might wear those insane scene kid outfits around the same time. I wasn’t really a homophobe, but I would definitely sort of roll my eyes.”
“Like, of course there are hot guys/girls. Duh.”
“Duh. You don’t have to make it your whole personality. Just go with the flow or don’t complain about not fitting in.
“Welp, turns out not everyone thinks guys and girls are equally hot.”
“I made a very good friend at my job. I cared for her a lot. One of the best people I ever met.”
“I didn’t know she was gay until about 2 months in. At that point I realized that she was just like me, and what she did behind closed doors, with her SO, didn’t matter to me at all. She was and still is, a wonderful human being.”
“HBO. When I was in school a show called ‘Six Feet Under’ started.”
“It was the first thing I ever saw that depicted a gay relationship. On top of that there were several docs about gay people and the gay community around the same time.”
“That kind of got me past the childish reactions I had to gay people.”
“You never know what opens people’s eyes to this kind of thing, and that’s why representation matters.”
Showing minorities as normal people will make people realize they are normal people.
“Christian Boomer Dude here: Like people are saying in these comments, get to know a gay person instead of simply judging them based on hearsay.”
“Gay people are some of the warmest, kindest people I’ve known. It kills me that families are disowning them. Gay people don’t wake up one morning and suddenly decide they’re gay. It’s how they’re made. I’ve had gay friends tell me they wish they were straight. So enough already with the persecution.”
“I grew up. People are just people.”
“The number of out gay people I have met led me to the conclusion they are way happier than the straight people I have met. It must be such a relief to not have to live a lie anymore. Maybe the original homophobes were just jealous that gay people seemed to be happy all the time.”
“I wouldn’t say I was ever a homophobe, but I grew up in a small town and was subsequently sheltered.”
“One of my college roommates came out after living with him for two years. When he was single, we’d wingman for him at the local gay bar. I met some of my best college friends at that bar. Pretty soon he started dating a guy, and not so long from now I’ll be standing in their wedding.”
“I grew up in a rural town in the 80s. Seeing gays as ‘bad’ was just the norm.”
“In the mid 90s I was staying at a friend’s flat and he came out to me. I was kind of disgusted at first and told him ‘just stay on your side of the room.'”
“At first I was genuinely worried he was going to hit on me or ‘try some gay [expletive].'”
“Then I thought about it a bit. He was my friend. The same person I’d known for years. Coming out must have been so hard for him. He is still one of my dearest friends and I still apologise for my behaviour that night.”
– PlzMichaelBayThis
“I was anti-LGBTQ+ from middle school and freshman year of high school.”
“I really don’t remember why I hated them, I just did. I think I mainly did so I could be different. I remember one day in 10th grade, I just thought about why I hated these people.”
“I realized that I hated them for absolutely no reason at all.”
“I apologized to all the people that I may have hurt with my behavior and I eventually worked the f-slur out of my vocabulary.”
Stories like these make you realize how easy change is, and it sucks that some people refuse to do even that.
“I come from a family of proudly uneducated, unemployed, judgmental religious, racist, sexist, homophobic, rural right leaning hicks.”
“I was raised with a lot of terrible ideas. When I moved away from home was the big one, but meeting wonderful LGBTQ people who took the [time] to educate me also helped.”
“It took a long time but accepting that I don’t have a specific gender that I’m attracted to.”
“And that part of my discomfort was inspired by guilt instilled in me through religion and my families political leanings helped me come out and finally stand up to my family.”
“I was raised to be homophobic. I was born in 1980 so it was not uncommon.”
“In the mid 90’s my mom got a job at a call center and became friends with a gay man.”
“It took me a while, but once I gave the guy a chance and got to know him, I realized that was good guy and something just snapped in my head.”
“I have since made apologies to a couple of gay people that I had said some offensive things to prior to this happening.”
“My mother was not a homophobe in a hatred sense…but she was a product of her time in having a general attitude of ‘Eh, gay people, I don’t wanna know.'”
“She worked as a receptionist in a hospital, and there was a dying AIDS patient there. Every day, the patient’s gay partner would come in and spend most of the day with him.”
“One day, she was walking past the AIDS patient’s room, and saw him and his gay partner holding hands and crying, surrounded by flowers and cards, etc.”
“According to my mother, her thought process went like this:
“Wow, look at that, those two look just like a real couple…..
(beat)
Oh….
Right, I get it now!”
“I’m not really even sure why I was homophobic in the first place.”
“I guess because most of my family and friends were. Honestly, I think I simply grew up.”
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– u/revtim
I think when it comes down to it, most “homophobic” people just aren’t taught any different (until they are).
