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Looking back at 2014, the year has been peppered with legal victories, cultural triumphs, and political successes for the LGBT community. More than half of the country has now legalized gay marriage, and a Supreme Court ruling on the issue is nearly inevitable.
“It’s been an incredible year for LGBT equality,” said Seth Adam, director of communications at GLAAD.
The Sochi Olympics brought “unprecedented attention” to LGBT issues abroad, said Adam, and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (a Republican, no less) vetoed an antigay bill that would have allowed businesses to invoke religious freedom as a reason to discriminate against gay customers.
LGBT Americans are even getting better treatment in the digital world this year, as Facebook changed its traditional male-female gender options to include dozens of additional identifiers, from “transgender” to “gender-fluid” and “intersex.”
Although there were countless landmark moments for gay rights in 2014, here are the top five.
1. The Kiss Heard Around the World
Not only was Michael Sam the first openly gay football player to be drafted to the NFL, he then set off a media storm when he kissed his boyfriend, live, on national television, after hearing he was headed to the St. Louis Rams. This one kiss sparked weeks of coverage, commentary, and debate over Sam’s qualifications as a player and the role his sexual orientation would play in his career. The drama hasn’t seemed to faze Sam, who planted one on his man again publicly this month at a ceremony where he was named GQ Man of the Year.
Sam is now a free agent (he didn’t make the final Rams cut), but that hasn’t stopped the Oprah Winfrey Network from shooting a documentary about him and his role in sports history; it’s slated to air later this month. And Sam was not the only high-profile athlete to come out this year. In April, University of Massachusetts guard Derrick Gordon became the first Division One men’s college basketball player to come out as gay.
In addition to expanding the visibility of LGBT people in sports, these men have helped dispel old stereotypes of what it means to be an athlete.
“They’re really recasting what it means and what it looks like to be LGBT,” said Adam. “It sends a message to young people that being LGBT people is no longer a barrier to fulfilling your dreams.”
2. Transgender Rights Take Center Stage
Orange Is the New Black sustained its reputation as a Netflix sensation and brought a new look at LGBT relationships to the masses—in part because the show put transgender actress Laverne Cox on the map. Although Cox dabbled in television before Orange, the hit series with 12 Emmy nominations in 2014 alone has made Cox the face of transgender rights in America and a media darling to boot.
Cox has done countless interviews and speaking engagements, and she became the first transgender woman to be nominated for an Emmy in an acting category. Glamour magazine amed her woman of the year in 2014, and her omnipresent cultural importance was crowned with an appearance on the cover of Time. Cox was the first openly transgender person to secure that spot.
“Just the visibility that she has brought to the trans movement in this year alone is incredible,” said Adam.
Cox has also joined a campaign to fight a prostitution law in Arizona that unfairly targets transgender women by allowing police to arrest anyone who “appears” to be soliciting sex. In addition to her direct actions, Cox seems to have ushered in a tide of transgender awareness, marked by decisions such as that of women’s college Mills College to openly accept transgender students.
3. Majority of States Allow Gay Marriage
This year America saw a swell in momentum for marriage equality as an onslaught of courtroom victories brought the grand total of states with legalized gay marriage to 35, plus the District of Columbia.
In 2014 alone, 18 states made same-sex unions legal.
On one day in October, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for gay marriage in five states (Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin) by deciding not to hear appeals in these states’ gay marriage cases.
This year also saw a different type of landmark decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which actually upheld the ban on gay marriage in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. Although the decision itself is discouraging and the first time a same-sex marriage ban has made it past a federal circuit court, LGBT advocates are hopeful it will end in a Supreme Court review. The decision created “a circuit court split,” which increases the probability that the Supreme Court will address the issue and make a national ruling, experts say.
4. Boy Scouts Welcome Gay Youth
On Jan. 1 of this year, a new policy for the Boy Scouts of America took effect allowing openly gay youth to become members. The measure was approved by 60 percent of the 1,400 leaders who voted on it, deciding no boy would be denied membership “on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.”
The Human Rights Campaign called the decision a “historic step forward,” and GLAAD said it was a “significant victory for gay youth across the nation.” The decision came last year after extensive debate between scout leaders and religious zealots, gay rights advocates, and parents.
“While people have different opinions about this policy, we can all agree that kids are better off when they are in Scouting,” said the Boy Scouts of America in a statement after the vote.
But approving gay youth membership is only one step forward for the Boy Scouts, which still bans gay leaders and adults from the organization. Taking down this antigay policy is next on the agenda for many pro-LGBT interests, including the Walt Disney Company, whichthreatened to pull all funding from the Boy Scouts in 2015 if it didn’t reverse its ban on gay leaders.
5. HIV Drug Goes Mainstream
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began recommending HIV drug PrEP as a “prevention option” for people “who are at high risk of getting HIV.” Risk factors include having an ongoing sexual relationship with an HIV-positive partner or being a gay or bisexual man and having unprotected sex with multiple partners where the person’s HIV status is not known.
If taken correctly and consistently, PrEP has been shown to lower the chances of getting HIV by up to 92 percent, according to certain studies.
“PrEP is a dose of hope, taken once daily,” said Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin in a statement this year. “Today, there is an unprecedented chance to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, in part through PrEP’s aggressive prevention of new HIV infections.”
PrEP is currently being produced under the brand name Truvada, and HRC, along with other LGBT advocates, is pushing for insurers and drug manufacturers to work on lowering the cost and making it more accessible to those who it could help. Not only is this a groundbreaking drug that could save a lot of lives, but it has also opened up a crucial dialogue.
“We’ve started talking about HIV and AIDS in our community in a way we haven’t in a long time,” said Adam.