The conception of the LGBTQ community ensues from the pre-text that allows individuals to love whoever they deem fit. The strife has been long, hard, and emotionally devastating for queer folks who claim they only want to be allowed to love their fellow gender. Same-sex marriage has been and is still vehemently opposed by conservative people who see it as a vile discrepancy.
Recently, measures have been put in place to guarantee a more inclusive and liberal world that upholds the rights — including marriage — of queer people. Even the littlest opposition geared towards LGBTQ folks is often distilled as a crime under the tent of hate speech. Regardless of the strong opposition religious bodies have towards people’s affiliation with queer activities, some are becoming much more inclusive, gradually.
In 2013, Pope Francis, the holy leader of the Catholic Church, in giving his view on the LGTBQ community said: “if they accept the Lord and have goodwill, who am I to judge them?” This is a testament to the long years of battle for LGTBQ acceptance.
But how did all of this — the struggle, agitation, and fight for queer inclusion, begin?
GAY RIGHTS AND INCLUSION
The rainbow-coloured flag is a totem of inclusivity that captures the diversity of the LGBTQ population. In the US, The struggle started with the persecution of gays in the 1940s. During this time the disparaging fact that wavered was the over-inflated regard paid to heterosexuals, as opposed to homosexuals.
By the 1960s, the movement began, and the rise of the “gay is good” chant exacerbated more people to embrace their sexuality and accept their superficial truths. By this time, some gay activities had been decriminalized, with the achievement of equal rights and equal treatment under the law. However, society’s notion of such practice remained conservative.
This improvement was intensified by the Stonewall riots — the straw that broke the camel’s back and opened up locked doors to the gay liberation movement. From this time onwards, the gay rights movement focused on gay pride, identity and acceptance of queer sexuality. By the end of the 1970s, another branch of liberationists sprung into the limelight; a mixture of lesbian rights and feminist acts seeking to fight sexism and homophobia that lesbians relinquished at the time.
Unfortunately, the impacts of AIDS in the 1980s marked the inception of a horrendous turn in the gay movement and set it several steps back. But through adequate progression, such stigmas have been excluded. Talks on legalizing queer marriages became paramount.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Not until the year 2000, did same-sex marriage remain illegal in many countries. By 2019, about twenty-nine countries have made marriage among homosexuals into legal legislation. Although this is a striking effort that dangles in the jurisdiction of queer folks, they are still brutalized, regarded as sycophants that prefer to distinguish themselves from morality.
Twenty-nine countries stand as the only countries that have legalized same-sex marriage worldwide. On 1 April 2001, the Netherlands became the first country to legalize marriage between people of the same sex despite strong opposition from the Christian Democratic Party. The fight to decriminalize such an act began in 1998 and successfully ended on the day of legalization.
Belgium followed in 2003 after five years of recognition. In 2005, Spain and Canada accordingly, legalized marriages of gays despite conservative opposition from the Roman Catholic Church and the Conservative Party respectively. Surprisingly, with an overwhelming vote of 230 to 41, South Africa followed suit in 2006.
Norway and Sweden had the restriction removed in 2009, based on ongoing struggles perpetrated by the queer community. By 2010, Portugal, Iceland, and Argentina did likewise. Denmark decriminalized same-sex marriage in 2012, followed by Brazil, France, Uruguay, and New Zealand in 2013.
England, Wales, and Scotland, after months of debate in the British parliament, effected this change in 2014. By 2015, Luxembourg, Greenland, the United States (under Obama’s administration), and Ireland joined the list of countries that had embarked on such a controversial undertaking. Colombia followed in 2016.
Finland, Malta, Germany, and Australia, 2017 allowed gays and lesbians to get married. Finally, Austria and Taiwan joined the trend in 2019. As we examine the processes of legalization, worthy of note is that the process always ends in the parliament. And it is more common among highly democratic and liberal countries.
But even within such countries, not all individuals support the development. Some still cater around with rigid conservative views, describing the advancement of queer rights and freedoms as immoral. Queer activities are still viewed with a contrary eye. Regardless, the progress is striking in all and sundry, with posterity, gradually becoming accustomed to its tenets.
The first United Nations report on human rights of gay and lesbian people released in 2011 issued that “Homophobic and transphobic violence has been recorded in every region of the world”. That is to say that even with the overwhelming progress that still, inevitably chocks conservative fellows, queer folks are not free from the ostracization that has plagued them from the very inception of identifying as queer. The UN reports that LGBTQ folks are often targets of organized abuse and exorcism by religious bodies. Therefore, the decriminalization of same-sex marriage is only a tip of the utopia queer folks project for themselves and their posterity.