While Gov. Walz’s choice to sponsor his school’s gay-straight alliance may not seem like a big deal now, things were *very* different in 1999. This kind of allyship, a year after Matthew Shephard’s murder and 4 years before Lawrence v Texas, was extremely meaningful for gay people of my generation.

I still remember the homophobic comments of people at a Dartmouth reunion in 1991 after a mutual friend came out. I suppose the worst was said in smaller circles of homophobic fellow travelers out of earshot, but I clearly remember a once good friend saying to me, "But what if it's just a phase?"

since society defines human default as "married middle-aged straight white guy" it's particularly efficacious when they use that mantle to stand up for people who don't get that consideration. not unlike how biden blurting out support for gay marriage suddenly shifted that landscape too.

I remember in 2003 there was an effort to get homophobic language to stop being normalized online and my stupid ass was like, "Well that'll never fuckin work!" Young gay folks don't understand how routine that shit was until ~2010.

Seeing how far we've come is what gives me hope in this current backlash to queer rights. Today we are fighting from a position of much greater strength than our elders were during the previous backlash during the 90's. Walz is a real one for backing us when it was unpopular to do so.

the landscape changed so quickly and it's such an incredible blessing, but we need to keep communicating what it was like for people who became conscious later. and I'm not saying it's a picnic now, but doing something like this was qualitatively different in 1999 than in 2019. Or even 2009.

Like CA passed a gay marriage ban in 2008 ffs.