
What are the norms of today’s society in comparison to our society in the past? An example of a change from the past is, years back, the man of the household was always supposed to be the one to bring in the money while the woman stayed home to cook, clean, and take care of the children. Now, it is just as normal to have the man of the house stay home and the woman work, or have both man and woman working. Another change is it used to be seen as wrong to be in a relationship with someone of a different race where as now, interracial relationships are completely normal. One of society’s biggest changes by far is the view on homosexuals in society. The rights of the LGBT community has come a far distance from where they started. In the last 100 years, the LGBT community has come from persecution and exile to gaining the right to get married in almost all 50 states. Although, that accomplishment did not come without a lot of hard work. The gay rights movement helped shape the LGBT community and society’s views about homosexuals. This change of society’s views is expressed in the Netflix original episode “San Junipero” of the series Black Mirror. 

Homosexuals have faced all kinds of attention since the beginning of existence, but it wasn’t always negative. According to the “Historical Dictionary of Homosexuality” by Brent L. Pickett, in 385 B.C.E. in Ancient Greece, famous philosopher Plato wrote Symposium, a text that celebrated same sex attraction. Years later also in Ancient Greece in 378 B.C.E, “A military unit called ‘Sacred Band of Thebes’ was celebrated despite it being all male lovers,” (Pickett). It was not until later in 850 Europe when an anonymous author forged a series of documents that put the blame of many deadly illnesses on homosexuals. These documents would go around churches for centuries, (Pickett). After the forged documents circulated the church, people started persecuting or even killing homosexuals. It was not until the rise of the gay rights movement in the 1940’s that the LGBT community started fighting for their rights in everyday society, and by the 1960’s the gay rights movement had spread nationwide. “By 1969 gay and lesbian organizations existed all over the country. They were becoming more public in Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington D.C., Boston, New York City, Miami, and even in smaller population centers such as Seattle, Denver, Buffalo, and in fact almost everywhere,” (Bullough). Still, society was skeptical about homosexuals and it took decades for society to be completely accepting, which is demonstrated in Black Mirror’s “San Junipero”.

In “San Junipero” we are initially introduced to Yorkie, a shy uncomfortable girl who immediately feels a connection to wild child Kelly. Kelly attempts to help Yorkie become more comfortable with herself by convincing her to dance with her in a club. Yorkie eventually runs out of the club because she felt that everyone was staring at “the two girls dancing together”. Kelly talks to Yorkie trying to calm her down which eventually leads to her inviting Yorkie back to her house. Yorkie, obviously uncomfortable, leaves Kelly only to keep returning to the club where the two met in hopes of seeing Kelly again. Throughout the episode, we see a relationship developing between the two characters, and despite Yorkie’s worry about what society thinks about her she falls in love with Kelly. As the episode progresses, viewers learn that San Junipero is not a real place at all but a virtual reality that people can visit occasionally or live there permanently after they die. It is also learned that both Yorkie and Kelly are older than they appear in San Junipero. Kelly is an old woman dying of an undisclosed illness and Yorkie is an old quadriplegic, caused by being in a car accident at 21 after fleeing her disappointed parents after coming out to them as a lesbian. The show does not always focus on the negative view from society, but also shows how society has adapted when it comes to their views about Yorkie and Kelly and that is demonstrated by the other dancers in the club. At first in the earlier eras, people would give Yorkie and Kelly weird looks for dancing together but as they traveled to different and later eras, people stopped paying them so much attention.  

“San Junipero” demonstrates the challenges that the LGBT community has faced in a couple different ways. One challenge demonstrated in the episode is Yorkie being so uncomfortable with who she is. Due to the fact that for so long homosexuals have been oppressed they are uncomfortable with who they are. They feel like it is wrong to love who they do. Because Yorkie is so uncomfortable with who she is when she is dancing in the club with Kelly, she feels as if everyone is staring at them. Which hinders her ability to have fun with Kelly.  Another challenge faced by Yorkie is not being accepted by her parents when she came out to them. This results to her driving and crashing her car and becoming a quadriplegic. Her parents rejected her for being who she is just as many parents have done to their kids in the past and it ultimately led to her downfall. “San Junipero” helps viewers get an understanding of the drawbacks the LGBT community has faced in both the past and in some cases even the present. 

In conclusion, it is apparent that the LGBT community and the gay rights movement helped shape the Black Mirror episode, San Junipero. Adding to that thought, it can be inferred that the creators of Black Mirror have high hopes for the direction our society will take when it comes to the LGBT community. In the show, in the real future where Kelly and Yorkie are their actual ages, no one is surprised or offended that the two of them are together. Also when Kelly marries Yorkie they face no problems or scrutiny by the people around them. This makes viewers believe that the creators of the show believe society will continue their increasing acceptance of homosexuals in today’s society. San Junipero was shaped by the gay rights movement but the show shapes what hopefully is believed to happen in the future. 
