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More of a "gay-people-shoudn't-be-under-constant-threat-of-violence-intended-to-force-them-back-into-the-closet" club, or a "shift-the-societal-response-to-gay-people-existing-from-violent-repression-to-minding-your-own-d*mn-business" club.
Sure, you can tell yourself that, but being actually gay wasn't a problem in the 90s or 2000s. It was faking manliness that was as far as high school kids were concerned.
Of course, there is the overreaching issue of pederasty in the gay male community that would also cause the erudite mottian to speculate.
I don't think they drew much of a distinction between those two things, or between any two non-heteronormative characteristics.
Admittedly, this may have varied between regions; some areas (the 'fly-over' states) would have been more hostile than Boston or San Francisco.
And if gay teenagers are shunned and rejected by the broader society, are they more likely, or less likely, to associate with that community?
I am of the opinion that without the pederasts there will be few if any gay teens.
That's not what I asked.
Aiden is going through puberty. While the other boys in his class are starting to notice girls, Aiden is noticing boys in the same way.
On Earth-764, 16M/16M is held to the same standards as 16M/16F.
On Earth-932, 16M/16M is regarded with the same vitriol as 55M/12M, and the former is only tolerated in sub-cultures which also tolerate the latter.
If you're trying to keep Aiden away from paedophiles, are you likely to have more success on Earth-764, or on Earth-932?
If that were true, 764 is probably better for Aiden.
On real Earth there are vanishingly few Aidens without outside forces pushing him there.
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Are you from Saudi Arabia or something? Every authority in vicinity not only doesn't violently represses being gay, it actively promotes it.
That was not the case in the 1990s.
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Isn't that the purpose of narrative technologies like "silence is violence" and "microaggression"? As long as anything has happened in living memory that so much as made a member or "ally" of the protected group uncomfortable, the protected group is under attack (and implicitly deserves and requires additional resources for protection).
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