Has anyone changed their mind from anti-gay marriage to pro-gay marriage?

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For what I've read and lived, exposure helps a lot, many people think it's a "them vs us" issue, but things change quickly once they see some of their "us" on the other side. That's what I don't advocate "closet active homosexuals" meaning those gay people that try the most to look and feel heterosexual never telling anything remotely compromising, they might think they're keeping their friends and people, but in truth they're hurting their own cause.
 
I don't think I was ever really homophobic or against the issue but I was kind of indifferent for a while. That has definitely changed though!
 
I used to be super religious 7 years ago when I was a kid and found pictures of two men kissing to be disgusting and didn't want there to be same sex marriage due to religious reasons, but now I'm not religious anymore and over the years have gradually have become more tolerant, to the point of advocating marriage equality and being super happy for people who finally can marry. I can't stop looking at all the heartwarming stories coming out after yesterday.
 
Not me personally, but my father is a religious Catholic who turned around on the issue. Part of it was that the rest of my immediate family was already pro-marriage equality, and part of it was that he was against it mostly because of his upbringing and had never considered how meaningful the issue was to those who couldn't get married.

Now my dad is a staunch supporter of same-sex marriage and texted me about the announcement yesterday. I'm proud of him for being open-minded and choosing to support love.
 
Didn't really care about it but one of my best friends came out of the closet a few years back. My parents were totally anti-gay in general but they really love my friend so they've become much more open about it. Don't get why people have such an issue with this. Just let them be happy. It literally doesn't effect them at all unless it's their straight son/daughter being forced into a gay marriage which I don't think is even possible. Let the religious goons worry about their own sins and imaginary after life.
 
I think the closest I was ever against gay marriage was the very deceiving ads supporting Prop 8 here in California. They really tried to make it look like it was just about educating children in schools and having stories and literature regarding two guys or two gals getting together being forced on children. At the time, I thought "Well I guess if THAT'S what it is, I GUESS I can see. Nothing should be FORCED on children."

But when I looked up Prop 8 to see what it really was, I changed my mind really quickly.
 
Nope, never been against gay marriage. Since the USC ruled in favor of same-sex (not necessarily gay) marriage, two completely straight people can marry and collect benefits, so yay for equality I guess...
 
Raised by super conservative people here. Once I hit high school and started actually meeting and befriending LGBT people made me realize it's bullshit to put any type of stigma on them, and all orientations deserve the rights that come along with marriage. Simple as that.
 
Yeah I used to be against SSM still in high school. I don't think I was that bigoted fortunately (I admit I was slightly, but really it was quite small I'd say). I just lacked skills to critically examine my thoughts back then. I did think it was fine of two people to love each other (including people of same sex obviously), but I think my position was mostly that if two people of same sex have children, those children would get bullied so much.

I even argued for that in a debate in some class, but my the argument got shot down pretty well (as it deserved) and while it didn't immediately change my mind about it fully (though I did see that my argument didn't really make sense), I did start to think about it far more thoroughly from that point on, and realized that I had been really silly.
 
I was raised in a christian household, but my parents seem to have the love the sinner not the sin kind of mentality, which isn't exactly the best but maybe it's a step up from just being like kill all gays and stuff.

Anyway, I never really had an opinion when I was younger in regards to marriage. I thought homosexuality in itself was odd since my mind kept getting stuck on the: at it's basic level sex is used for procreation and gay sex can't do that so does that make it some kind of biological, for lack of a better word, mistake? Like I didn't see anything wrong with it I just didn't really understand the purpose for it.

I used to use words like gay and faggot a lot when I was younger though. I feel like I definitely have GAF to thank at least partially for breaking that habit, GAF and a friend of mine. I was in senior year of high school and I insulted somebody using the word faggot and a friend of mine hit me on the arm and told me not to do it again. I didn't understand at the time, but later on we talked and he said that he was bi, something I hadn't known, and felt hurt hearing me say that. I took that to heart and completely cut it out of my vocabulary.

As time went on my indifference to the cause of marriage equality gradually gave way as I learned more about gay people and interacted more with them. I am completely for marriage equality now and am very happy that with the big step the US has taken in favor of it, but like many others have said this is just a step. For true equality we still have a long way to go but with time we'll be able to make it acceptable in many other parts of the world and in many other aspects aside from marriage too.
 
I never gave gay marriage any thought when was still going through that ignorant phase of my life, albeit my ignorance on this kind of issues was no where never on the level of some of those around me. It just kind of happened, in part because of just hanging around various internet forums(seriously, the internet absolutely did me some good), and you know, having that special kind of empathy that isn't designated only for people that are just like me (a common problem, really). Also, disengaging completely with any kind of religious beliefs, and the kind of rhetoric that came along with it among so many people certainly didn't hurt. (this didn't take too long, really)

I'm thinking a ton of progress was made during my early-mid teens but late teens was really where it was at.
 
I used to think "why would they want to marry anyway, marriage sucks" but i quickly discovered that it isn't just a matter of wanting to marry, it's a matter of dismantling obvious discrimination.
 
I grew up with a gay father. He wasn't around at all, but because of that I could never be against gays in any way. Oddly enough, if being gay were as accepted as it is today, I might not exist!
 
I think it's silly to stand in the way of others happiness or decisions when it's not causing any sort of physical harm to themselves or others. I have always supported gay rights and just find it astonishing how society hasn't learned from past mistakes. Good for people changing their point of view.
 
I mean, gay marriage wasn't really a political possibility when I was anti-gay marriage, but it was more like I was anti-gay in general.

My parents are religious but they're actually startlingly progressive for southern Christians, their only issue with gay marriage is that, in the religious context, it isn't legitimate marriage. However, they've never been against extending the civil benefits of marriage to homosexual couples, they just want it called something else. That's not really the same thing as being anti-SSM in my mind, although it isn't exactly advocating for equality. Compared to a lot of their more conservative peers, though I'll take what I can get.

Anyway, the youth minister at our church was actually one of the most conservative members of the church, and while his major beef was with evolution, he was vehemently anti-SSM, believed it was a degenerate lifestyle choice, etc. He rubbed off on me with both of those, and it wasn't until I went to a boarding school in Pennsylvania and actually met openly gay people that it became obvious that sexual orientation wasn't a choice and was inherent to people's beings. That completely reversed me on the issue. It's absolutely unfair to deny rights that others have to people just because of their biology. I started believing in evolution, too, just so everyone is aware lol. It's really shameful to me to look back at the ridiculous and stupid animosity I held for gay people for the first 14 or so years of my life. However, I'm very gratified by yesterday's SCOTUS ruling, and I think that as we move forward the leftover animosity from some pockets of conservative christianity will slowly fade. It might not disappear, but as gay marriage becomes an every day thing to people and they see like I did through pure exposure that there's not fundamentally different about gay people or gay relationships than themselves or their own, the vast majority of Americans will come to embrace - or at the least tolerate - it.
 
Fraull said:
I think it's silly to stand in the way of others happiness or decisions when it's not causing any sort of physical harm to themselves or others. I have always supported gay rights and just find it astonishing how society hasn't learned from past mistakes. Good for people changing their point of view.
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Yup, if people find their happiness in marriage then so be it. I don't trust people enough to ever get married so I won't, but I can see where some are coming from and why they do it.
 
Shifted from "I don't care" to "Fully support same sex marriage" on my teens, does it count?

Basically, i didn't think about it, it wasn't important to me when i was a kid, i knew gay people were a thing but i didn't express any sentiment towards them neither in favor nor against, as i grew up i just figured it made sense to support marriage equality and LGBT rights.
 
Yeah, I was brought up in a conservative environment and boy oh boy did I have some close minded views during my early high school years. It wasn't until I actually thought about it for myself that I shed some really toxic world views.
 
I was homophobic and anti-gay marriage until I was 16 or so. Raised by a Muslim (he never used to be!) father and Christian mother. Joining GAF two years ago changed me for the better. I try and open my parents' minds, but only my mother is slowly starting to be more accepting. My dad isn't because... Well, I haven't really tried with him yet. Also, I'm not religious.

Unfortunately my older sister is more like my dad: Not very accepting. Today was a Pride thing in London that we passed through and she was really passive aggressive about the whole thing.
 
Raised in a Catholic family and growing up around a middle school and high school culture that used the word "faggot" without blinking an eye, I was a little homophobic all the way through at least through the first half of high school. Then later on in high school I learned more, and had actually met some people that were gay and lesbian and understood and realized that it was so dumb that gay marriage wasn't legalized, throwing words like "faggot" around is a horrible thing to do, and more.

Honestly I chock up the way I used to be just due to a lack of life experience and bad culture. This is why that we still aren't "done" yet, as much as a victory as yesterday was, we still have a prevalent homophobic culture in the USA.
 
I was raised in a conservative/religious family. So naturally I was a ignorant fool throughout high school and college. Over the years I came to realize how wrong I was and now I fully support gay marriage! I have several gay friends and I'm so happy that they can now be legally married no matter where in the U.S. they live. Seeing so many people celebrate yesterday brought tears to my eyes and I felt proud to be an American for the first time in years!
 
I always thought gays should have equal rights but had a stupid stance saying that they shouldnt marry. I grew older, got to know a couple lesbian couples and my son ended up being the ring bearer in one of their weddings.
 
I feel lucky that my God Father was gay and it allowed my mind to open up to the idea. This was a time back in the late 80s early 90s were gay was still very much frowned upon and ridiculed. Top that with me going to Catholic school and you get the picture.

I only wish he would have been alive to see this day. He passed away in 1994 from AIDS. He was a very loyal partner but his partner was bi and promiscuous. My god father found out he was HIV positive when his partner took a shotgun and killed himself, my godfather arrived to find the scene and a note saying be careful with the remains I have AIDS.

He was such an amazing man and he would have loved to live in a time when under the eyes of the law how he wished to live and who he wished to love would be treated equally.
 
I'm a hypocritical homophobe who won't blink an eyelid if two women kiss, but will roll my eyes at two men, it's who I've been my whole life, and prob. Won't change. However I have always maintained that people should be free to marry whomever they wanted to, and that's what really matters.
 
kai3345 said:
GAF helped a lot actually.
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The diversity of GAF and amount of well-informed folks does help indeed.

RDreamer said:
I was anti when i was younger, back when I was parroting most of my dad's stupid ass beliefs.
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This is sort of me.
I wasn't "anti-gay" or hateful, but I was more informed by my parent's more conservative line of thinking (this was like half my lifetime ago). I think my mum grew out of that thanks to her adoration of celebrity culture (where there's a lot of high profile coming outs), my dad sort of has but he's the type who "doesn't like having it rubbed in his face", and I'm totally supportive of it, I grew up with people who had a hard time growing up in a world where it was something a part of them that others feared/disliked and I never wanted to be one of them.

Happy news, happy day, I hope within a generation or so we can put anti-LGBT nay-sayers behind us. There's a lot of problems in the world, the freedom to love someone openly shouldn't be one of them.
 
I was never anti-gay marriage but when I was younger (around 12 or so), I didn't get why gays wanted to marry so badly. I genuinely didn't get what the big deal was. Also I used the word "gay" and "faggot" in the negative sense a lot. I don't use those words that way anymore.

I also didn't understand transgender or transsexual people at all. I pretty much felt that if you were a man, you were a man and if you were a woman, you were a woman and no amount of surgery and chopping off parts would change that biological fact.

Now I'm 19, transgender, and a huge supporter of marriage equality and LGBT rights in general.
 
I think maybe in 2005ish the closest I came to having an anti-gay stance was thinking it was an insignificant or minor issue. This was during the height of the Iraq War and War on Terrorism where it felt like the world was burning and the 2004 election may have swung to Bush on the strength of the gay marriage bans on the ballot in Ohio and elsewhere.

It was hard to not feel raw in thinking the gay marriage push was coming at the most inopportune time imaginable.
 
Most of the people in the country have.

Hell, just 4 years ago Obama and the democratic party were still spouting their civil union bs.

As for me personally, I have always been pro.
 
Yes. I grew up learning that it was wrong. As I made it out of my teens, I pretty much came around quickly.

I do remember that a big part of it for me was that I liked my parents, who taught that it was wrong, and hated the teens I went to high school with who didn't. It felt very culture war-ish to me, though at the time, I didn't realize that this is what I was feeding into. I even knew gay people and had gay friends, and oddly enough, when one confessed to being interested in me, I was like, "naw man, that's cool, I understand, let's be friends anyway and no I'm not scared away." I think now that really, my anti-gay-marriage stuff was really just a culture warrior stance, not that it makes it okay.

Unlike other people, I don't think that the internet helped. Discussion was incendiary on the internet and always will be. It probably pushed me further away from coming around to the right position on the matter.

What changed was basically that, when I thought about it, there was no logical position that one could take against it. I have always been interested in how things work, so I have a range of knowledge that is wide, though only fairly deep in a few places. When we worked on the Amendments in AP Government class, I was like "Well, the Fourteenth Amendment makes logical sense" and it wasn't far from there to "so why should the government restrict gay folks from getting married again?"

I am religious, but I'm definitely not a religious literalist. Almost no one is even if they say otherwise. It was always hard for me to accept that a bunch of ancient Hebrews somehow figured out exactly what specific rules God wanted the whole world to live by, though I do believe in God and come at my belief from a Christian standpoint. Still, if there is a God, capital G, thinking that we could possibly comprehend Him or Her completely is so hubristic as to be laughable. I ended up moving way over past the Episcopalians and into Christian Universalism, and actually it was exposure to Kierkegaard in high school that led me down that path. This was another key to my moving to the proper position on the topic.

I also think that my love of logical fallacies helped. Again, we learned this stuff in high school, and once you learn it, you can't really unlearn it when you see people make really awful arguments. I've never seen anti-gay-marriage people bring any scientific proof that gay marriage destroys civilization or hurts children, but I have seen a whole lot of research to the contrary. Then, the anti-gay argument descends into circular reasoning and faith. I love faith. I think faith is important and, for me at least, precious. As I teach my students, faith has nothing to do with factual evidence or logical arguments. I just couldn't accept the really poorly-constructed arguments toward gay marriage once I began to understand exactly how they were poorly constructed.

It's pretty cool though because all the kids in our family changed the thinking of our parents. We're a close family and talk about stuff all the time, and really, once our parents heard our own positions and why we hold them, they were like, "Yeah, that makes sense, actually." So really, education in general is the key to avoiding prejudice, IMO. Of course, as a teacher, I'd say that for everything!

Sorry for the long post.
 
I really couldn't care less what other people do if it doesn't affect me.
 
I grew up in a very homophobic family so I held the same views as them. My views changed during my teen years though. I'm 29 now and couldn't be more happier for LGBT community. Hopefully this change will encourage other countries to follow suit.
 
I didn't really have an opinion on it when I was a kid, but I have a sorta interesting story related to it.

So when I was in middle school, I started using the word "fag". You know, in the sorta generic immature insult way. Well one day, my father caught me using that word, and boy he was PISSED!

My dad told me a story about a friend. He was a good friend who comittied suicide when they were in college. The reason? Because he couldn't accept the fact that he was gay. The hate around his sexuality drove him to suicide.

My dad said this dramatically changed his views, and when he told me the story, well... I never used the word "fag" ever again!
 
Well, when I was a kid/teenager I thought gay guys were weird and funny. I likely wasn't pro-gay marriage, but never really debated it, to be honest. As an adult, I got to know a couple gay people and just came to realize people's sexual preferences isn't a concern of mine. I don't think they should be discriminated against, so I'm fine with gay marriage. But honestly, I think the US should have just gotten out of the marriage business altogether. What about single people now? They don't get those government benefits. Is polygamy going to be the next big issue? lol
 
I was never direclty anti-gay, for the most time of my youth I just didn't give much of a shit for homosexuals and just kept doing insensitive comments and talk because all my friends did it and it was in rap music all the time. Well, this changed of course as I grew up and understood that this was wrong. But I believe that I was at least indifferent to the issue at my lowest and right now I can't see any valid argument against homosexual marriage, unless you attack marriage itself.
 
My family has always been anti-gay in general. (Heck, when i was younger my brother brought me to one side and said "if you turn out to be gay, i'll beat the shit out of you")
I've always wanted gay people to have the same rights relating to marriage (which they have had in canada for a while now), but my head was always trying to justify that while keeping to my family's idiotic religious ideologies.

Then I realized that marriage isn't some christian, straight only thing and that its simply a way for people to be seen as a union in front of others and the law.

I'm very pro-gay marriage now, and actually quite liberal, but I try to keep that from my family. They don't take kind to that kind of stuff :/
 
Became an evangelical Christian as a teen, adopted their views, then mellowed a bit in my early 20's still thinking it was wrong and supported "pray the gay away" conversion therapy, but also recognized that denying them equal marriage rights seemed to be a constitutional violation.

Eventually in my mid and late 20's I dropped religion all together and came across information about homosexual behavior in the animal kingdom which kind of normalized it for me. I feel like some positive representation in media helped change my mind too.
 
I'm surprise that a friend I once met when I was in Japan was in celebration mood about this. She definitely didn't approve when another friend constantly made what she thought was a sexual pass at me. But I thought he was just being a typical military jock and not actually interested in me.

Fast forward, my best friend who she has also met before show his support for gay marriage by rainbowing his icon. Lo and behold, she liked the gesture. So maybe she has changed and people are capable of change. I think after years of being treated badly, I've lost hope that people will ever change but I'm glad to be proven wrong.
 
Me from 20 years ago would have been against gay marriage, but now I don't care. My views are still the same about homosexuality but I don't really care if they want to get married. I'm not the one getting gay married, and it doesn't affect me at all. So why not?

If you are a Christian and you believe it's a sin, why should you care if two guys want to get married? You aren't being harmed, and the sin part is between them and God, not you/them/and God.
 
I was when I was younger due to the shitty place I grew up but that quickly changed. Thinking back to that time makes me cringe.
 
i changed my mind from the "i dont care becuase it doesnt really impact me" to the "a lot of people are happy from this change so i might as well be also"
 
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