Like people have mentioned, we weren’t allowed to marry who we wanted to *marry. We also used to be subject to sexual assault on a regular basis because cops would check our genitals to see if they matched our gender presentation. If we didn’t comply, we would be arrested. People used to be tortured and beaten to death, like Matthew Shepard and Anthony Avalos, a ten-year-old boy who was beaten to death by his father for coming out as gay. Sometimes even straight people who just seemed gay have been harmed. Sometimes our straight allies are hurt for supporting us. We weren’t allowed to work in schools or around kids in general because we were considered dangerous (and still are, like this grooming shit!). So I’m guessing you were willfully ignorant. Also, this thing about **“I actually knew gay people”… do you think you’re the only person who ever met a real LGBT person? You say this like it should make people impressed with you. Well, guess what! I actually am an LGBT person and so are most of my friends. So don’t count me as impressed.
*I always hated the old conservative “joke” where we’d say “we can’t get married” and they’d retort back (thinking they’re so fucking smart) “oh you can get married, you just have to marry the opposite sex!” I’m sure the same bullshit logic was used with interracial marriage laws (“oh you can get married, you just have to marry your same race!”). Bleh!
**I’m not totally convinced Bobby here actually did know LGBT people. If he did know them, then they might have agreed with his horrible sentiments because of fear for their own safety, especially back then.