You're not the first people who have had to fight racism, reactionary pseudo-patriotism, and human rights violations on an urgent national scale.

This time 50 years ago, the same thing was happening. The main difference this time around is, your young friends aren't being sent en masse to die overseas, and the scumbags responsible for the abuse at least have the decency to lie to us right into the open instead of hiding behind a sympathetic national press.

Oh, and also, now you can't get thrown in jail for being gay now. And a fair number of you can smoke weed right out in the open, for whatever that's worth.

Er, also, it's outright evil white nationalists who are doing the abusing, not hand-wringing centrist Democrats. That's... um... that's a real problem and a whole other topic, but it's not without its moral advantages. Sure makes it easier to pick our targets.

And the reactionary rhetoric, the power politics, the propaganda, the out-and-out lies, the screaming xenophobia, the police batons coming down on heads... Yeah, we've BEEN THERE BEFORE. Yeah, it really was that bad.

You, too, shall live long enough to sell out, compromise your ideals for a cozy existence, and become the next demographic problem. ;) But you know what? I think you might not. Compromise, that is. You had better fucking stay alive for me.

@zebratron2084 Regarding: "Oh, and also, now you can't get thrown in jail for being gay now."

(PDF link) https://www.law.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/microsites/gender-sexuality/files/roadmap_for_change_full_report.pdf

"A 2014 report from Columbia University found LGBTQ youth and trans women of color in particular "are endemically profiled as being engaged in sex work, public lewdness, or other sexual offenses." In these cases, law enforcement will even use the possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution-related offenses.
"Surely, no heterosexual white man would be arrested on suspicion of prostitution for carrying condoms in his pocket," the report noted. "Yet policing tactics that hyper-sexualize LGBT people, and presume guilt or dishonesty based on sexual orientation or gender identity, are deployed by law enforcement every day.""

@Aradia That's a fair point, but in this context I mean *for being gay per se*. The very fact they have to work at it still represents a pervasive and systemic bigotry, but I think it's indisputably an improvement over "your same-sex relationship is grounds for a prison sentence."

Respectfully, it's like the difference between current police prejudices against young black men—which is appalling, bigoted, oppressive, and unacceptable—and the Fugitive Slave Act. The xenophobia behind it still exists and is a huge concern for me, but the power structure behind it has been rattled substantially enough that they have to do it under cover. That's not ENOUGH progress, but it's progress, and a reason for hope.