Come Out, Come Out

How many times have we heard that but it is true just by knowing a trans person research has shown we change minds.

Just one gay acquaintance can change hearts and minds on LGBTQ rights, study finds
The study confirms what many have already known anecdotally: “Coming out works as a strategy for changing minds" on LGBTQ rights.
NBC News
By Gwen Aviles
December 17, 2018

When Dr. Nelson Bonheim first discovered that the new female physician hired by his medical practice was living with another woman, he was "a little uneasy about inviting her to his golf club," he recalled. Now, 25 years later, the 76-year-old retired gastroenterologist looks back on that uneasiness and thinks about how much he has evolved.

Bonheim said once he got to know his colleague, a lesbian 15 years his junior, they quickly became close friends. In fact, he said he eventually considered himself the younger doctor's "surrogate father or brother."

By the time his colleague married her female partner, Bonheim said he realized they “were like any other couple." He even spoke at her wedding, a wedding he said her own parents, who are Orthodox Jews, refused to attend because they didn’t fully accept her relationship.

“I was never opposed to same-sex marriage; people have a right to do what they want to do,” Bonheim added, "but I wasn’t as accepting as I am now.”
[…]
Bonheim is not alone in evolving on LGBTQ rights and acceptance after befriending a gay person. A new study confirms what many have already known anecdotally: Having at least one gay or lesbian acquaintance not only makes straight people more likely to support gay rights, but also makes them more accepting of gay people in general.

The phenomenon is known as "contact theory," according to Daniel DellaPosta, the study's author and an assistant sociology professor at Pennsylvania State University. DellaPosta, who is gay, said he has both a "personal and academic interest" in the topic and was inspired to research it after finding data that showed acceptance of homosexuality grew five-fold between 1973 and 2016.

It is not just knowing a LGBTQ person but it also effects those who know a Muslim or blacks or Latino person, it is hard to hate someone you know. The researchers found that…

… furthermore, we can see that respondents who were acquainted with a gay or lesbian person were indeed likelier to change their attitude in the direction of greater support for same-sex marriage. Although those with no gay acquaintances generally retained similar attitudes over time, or even became slightly less supportive of same-sex marriage, the percentage of people with gay acquaintances who also supported same-sex marriage increased from 45 percent in 2006 to 60 percent in 2010…

I must insert a word of caution… make sure it is safe to come out! Number 1 concern be safe, could there be violence, or the loss of housing or employment?

The article ends with…

DellaPosta acknowledged that not everyone who has a gay acquaintance will have a change of heart when it comes to gay people and LGBTQ rights. But, he added, "broadly speaking, it works."

Be safe but if you can come out, come out.