Gay Rights in America Are Not Equal

Huh, I found that really interesting, I never knew half of that.
Learn something new every day!

Conversion therapy still exists? It sounds like something that belongs in a dystopian to me. And gay panic defence still being around is disgusting.
I really can't believe that people are so hung up on what other people do in their relationships, it really doesn't affect them at the end of the day.

At least you are some decades ahead from Greece. Gay rights is a word mocked over here. They really don't understand the meaning and to be frank, gay people are still openly mocked. Physical violence is very rare but psychologically, gay people here must really suffer. Social awareness is still lacking... a lot. Coming out to a traditional family might cause quite the drama especially for boys, since manhood and what that means from their absolute, distorted pov is taken very heavily. In Greece you don't just "come out". The most exaggerated, stupid, outdated, cheesy, insufferable stereotyped men and women are daily paraded through shallow lifestyle shows and magazines, guiding people through the rules that highlight what you should be and how you should act according to your genitalia. Women should be plastic, dumb, make-uped beyond recognition, superficial and always act cute and smile. Men should be logical, strong, tough, decisive aaaand -> straight. There are "hypothetical" laws against gender discrimination but only in theory. This year I was told twice, straight to my face that the reason that I didn't fit the job was because I was a woman. Job position? Graphic designer at a printing company (what I've been studying for the past 5 years) and kiosk clerk... hm... fuck logic. Just imagine when a person is openly gay what he or she has to go through in order to get a job, anywhere. Not a smart move to "let it show". When you are different than the "norm" you are not assaulted but you are immediately cut-off which is worse from my perspective. It means that you need to start a war. Tough shit when there is no gay community or gay rights to back you up. It means you are digging your own grave.

I had met and hang out only with a few openly gay people. Only once did a friend come out to me and I remember that instant very lucidly because of the long dramatic intro he had made, until he at last told me that he was gay. I thought that he would tell me something horrible or something that would bring me in a very awkward position. That he had cancer or that he hit on me (which would be very awkward). Instead he told me that he was gay and I was dumbstruck, not because of what I've heard but because of the way he put it. He was very distressed because although he wanted to trust me in order to come out he was still afraid that I would cut him off or mock him since it had happened to him a lot. He was just nineteen at the time and after a while he asked me a favor; to go with him at his family's house in Corfu for vacation and pretend that I was his ex girlfriend just to produce some reassuring proof to his parents that he - at some point - had a relationship with a girl. I mean... wow. (I did and we had a blast). All the while though, I really couldn't help him. He was still lonely. He had turned twenty one and was still a virgin although he wanted so much to fall in love with someone and get into a relationship, he didn't know from where to start, what to do, whom to trust. His lovelife was a mess. In the end he started going out to gay bars just to meet anyone that was gay to get moving and went out with people that didn't really attract him, just because at least there, he would be considered attractive and form some kind of sexual relationship. It was a tough time and I really couldn't be of any help in the least. I could only listen because I didn't know what to tell him.

Why this story? Because I see the bright side of things. Social awareness always comes first. From where I'm standing, what you wrote above is not just a spark for the ignition, it's the motor running. There are LGBT organised communities, people that get informed everyday about such issues, straight people that participate into movements about gay rights, which means that gay people are not excluded from society in the way they where some years ago, since they are blending in. They are not considered deranged or freaks anymore, because there is a mass of people, gay and straight, supporting them and it is getting bigger. Numbers win. There is a war going on and it is open. Problems are being addressed and put on the table persistently to be solved. Over here... not so much, but there is a change. I see that mostly in the newest generations. I guess, because they are better informed and more kin in becoming the person that their uninformed mothers told them not to befriend. All this crap talk about millennials. Well, from what I've observed at least, doubting too much and wanting to be different and unique, has lead a grand wave of this newest generation to question and form a more sociological opinion upon such matters. That's why I told you before that things look bright for the future. As long as more people stop hiding and start talking about it seriously and confidently, things are bound to get better. Luck favors the bold. Community is were everything blooms.