Or have they?

A couple of days ago, as part of an ongoing trip down memory lane on Apple Music, I happened to be listening to a 1992 song by Fred Small, The Marine’s Lament. Since it’s only two minutes long, you can just stop what you’re doing right now and listen to it:

As I said, things have changed. Today gays and straights are treated equally, and no one is homophobic or transphobic anymore.

Right?

Well, I suppose if you ignore what’s going on—if you ignore what Republicans are doing in Florida, Texas, and elsewhere—you might believe that. Yes, it gets better, but not enough. When I was listening to Fred Small, I had just finished watching excerpts from the Ketanji Brown Jackson Congressional hearings. To listen to Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, and Tom Cotton, you would think nothing had ever changed at all in the past thirty years.

At least it was just the Senate, or we would have had to listen to Lauren Boebert and Madison Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz as well.

Things have changed in 30 years. But how much?

Categories: Life