Homosexuals have existed since the beginning of human society, became a controversial group in past few years. This group has hidden in darkness for thousand years, and finally, has decided to appear at a more enlightened time in society. However, because many people lacked knowledge about homosexuals, it made people fear, even detest homosexual’s activity, and because people is disgusted with homosexuals, the misunderstandings continue growth and hurt many homosexuals. Even though things are getting better in some countries now, as homosexuals show more details about themselves, the society started to recognize and accept them, this good condition only exists in United States and other few countries. There are still a huge number of countries consider the same sex marriage is illegal, and their people disapprove homosexuals too. Their disapprovals come from different reasons, but their negative attitudes are all hard to change, it looks impossible for them to accept homosexuals. For example, Australia legalized the ban of gay marriage decree in 2004 because the Christian right wing believe marriage is sacred and it should happen between male and female (Edwards, 247). However, there is still some possibilities for homosexual to be accepted by all society because people’s opinion has already changed a lot in past years. Research shows that those changes are reflected in three aspects of the society: the opinion of publics; people’s opinions towards homosexual within a family; and religions’ attitudes towards homosexual. The supporting rate of homosexuals has changed dramatically in those three aspects and are expected to continue raise in the future, so there is large possibility for homosexual to be accept by all society. 

As publics know more about homosexuals, some people finally realizing that the only difference between homosexual and heterosexual people is sexual orientation, and other than that, homosexuals are just like heterosexuals. Throughout the history, homosexual exists every time, every country, they do not disappear when the society oppose them, and also do not thrive when others approve them. Homosexuals just want to get equal rights, because they are same with each other. However, the feudal society in the past does not accept these differences. Actually, the basic reason for people to disapprove homosexual is that they think it is not normal. The love between two men or two women is not natural because the marriage between male and female has lasted for thousand years, then the society gradually set this as a convention. As Edwards analyzed in his book, people hold traditional identification of genders, and in their mind, the family made by male and female is the most natural format (Edwards, 2007). 

Therefore, it is appropriate to say that the history plays an important role in shaping people’s negative attitudes towards homosexual because the long history produced the traditional identification of marriage, family, and gender roles and eventually people treat homosexuals as unusual. For example, the conventions, such as man is the support of a family; woman needs to do the housework; and have a son is better than a daughter, all caused people’s negative attitudes towards homosexuals. All of those conventions emphasize the role of male and female, and a format or marriage, which finally pushes people to believe what is a family, and who should be a family member. This kind of rule is suitable for old society because in agricultural era, strength is necessary for the hard farm works, and women is physically weaker than men, so usually men work in the cropland to keep the production level. And then, women undertake the obligation to give birth to children and fed them, and serve the family as well. Through the ages, the gender role is clear, and this frame of family becomes firm now. So, when people see those one who want to marry same sex partner, they felt affronted because in their recognition, the role of a mother should be played by a woman who is full of femininity and a family need both femininity and masculinity. This could explain how history shaped people’s value of gender roles and format of family, and leads to the disapproval of homosexuals. 

Another important factor influences publics to disapprove homosexuals is HIV/AIDS. AIDS is a serious disease, and Neil McKenna states in his work that “in 1981 the first cases of AIDS were identified among men who have sex with men in the united states…Eighteen years on and the spread of HIV seems virtually unstoppable” (McKenna, Introduction, 1). This epidemic is terrible and could trigger people’s fear deeply. We now know that HIV does not only affect gay men and it’s not only transmitted through sex. Even though the sex between two men is not the only way to spread HIV, it is one major route of transmission, and in the same time, a route which is hard to count and prevent. According to McKenna, those men who have sex with men, sometimes could not be identify as homosexuals, as they also have sex with women while they have sex with men (McKenna, 11). This makes the condition worse because most of the sexual behaviors are hidden, and it directly influences people’s impressions of gays, even those men have sex with men are not gays. This misunderstanding exists for many years, and only declines slightly in recent years due to the improvement of people’s education level and knowledges about homosexuals. So, many people are still influenced by this epidemic and think homosexuals are dirty and lewd, therefore they disapprove of homosexuals.  

Those factors listed above did influence people’s attitudes to a large extent, and make it harder to change people’s negative attitudes. However, there is still some possibilities to change their attitudes and let homosexuals be accepted by whole society, because the society has already changes a lot in homosexuals’ case and more and more people start to change their attitudes. This change is due to the transformation of gender roles and the elevated education level today. 

As mentioned above, the history shapes people’s recognitions of gender roles. In WA Jellison’s work, he conducts two studies for gay men and straight men to explored how their attitudes toward sexual orientation, and their behaviors, beliefs related with the implicit and explicit measures. He conducted two studies and analyzed lots of surveys, studies which focus on gay men and straight men’s attitudes towards sexual orientation, and as the result, he found out that in both implicit and explicit measures, straight men’s attitudes of sexual orientation are largely different from gay men. And straight men hold negative attitudes toward homosexuality because they emphasize the importance of the traditional heterosexuality and the masculinity of men (Jellison, 2004). This could explain why female are easier to accept homosexuals than male. At the same time, lesbian couples are easier to get support than gay couples because they did not offend the masculinity as heavy as gays. In one national wide survey conducted by Brewer, Paul R., David C. Wilson, and Michael Habegger, they show different homosexuals images to the public to examine how publics opinions toward homosexual group different while they are showing different images. They find out that people support lesbians more than gays and the supporting rate lower while the gay couple kissing. This survey shows that the gender violation exists and influences people to generate the more negative attitudes toward gay than lesbian (2016). Both two works show that people are more opposite at gay, but one precondition could not be ignored is the supporting rate of homosexual is not low while doing these researches. And one issue reflected in both researches is gender role still imprisons people’s attitudes towards homosexual, so they are more likely to support lesbian. But traditional gender role has already challenged by feminists in twenty centuries and continued changes every day, till now, people’s recognition of female and male is far different from old eras, it is predictable that in the future the gender role will change dramatically. So, it is reasonable to predict that in the future people will support gay man more strongly than today just like they support lesbian because the masculinity may not be important anymore. 

Same as the change of gender role, the change of education level also influences people’s opinion. In the past, many men have sex with men due to the scarcity of women even they are not gay, and most of them are labors works in cities. Even though they are engaging in homosexual relationships, their low education level makes them treat this kind of relationship inappropriately, and the low education level of whole society makes people fear and misunderstand homosexuals. People relate HIV with homosexual because the lack of knowledge of both HIV and homosexual. As time changes, the education has improved a lot, people gradually learn more about the disease and homosexual, so they do not fear because of their ignorance. When the misunderstanding finally disappears, there is large possibilities for homosexual to be accepted by whole society. 

One more important change is the legalization of same sex marriage. Homosexuals fights for their rights for a long time. As Molly Ball reports, in 1970, a gay couple has already tried to get married in a courthouse in Minneapolis (Ball, 2015). After years of effort, the supreme court of United States gives gays and lesbians right to marry legally in 2015 (Philip Elliott, 2015). This decree has change homosexuals’ conditions dramatically, increasingly people change their attitudes due to the decree. Even though in the world, only USA and some other countries allow the same sex marriage, but it is possible for all countries to legalize the same sex marriage because of homosexual’s endeavors. At that time, the society’s attitudes will change a lot, and homosexual are possible to be accepted by all people. People who oppose homosexuals when gay marriage is not legal will be more accepting when they see those relationships are legitimized by marriage.

Another dramatic change on the attitudes happens in the family. As mentioned above, the gender roles shaped people’s recognition of family, and the history of agricultural society pushed people see offspring seriously. Without external stimulus, the format of family did not change a lot throughout the history, and this kind of convention still exist in todays’ society. So, it is hard for the older generations who has been influenced by this conventions for a long time to change their attitudes soon, in other words, it is hard for people to accept homosexuals because it did not conform to their recognition of family, and it is even harder for parents to accept their homosexual children because they will concern about the offspring too. 

 But the negative attitudes within families has changed a lot in recent years. One reason for family changes attitudes is they are familiar with each other and they concern more about children’s happiness, so they are easier to accept their homosexual children or siblings, especially the after parents see the life quality of their homosexual children. Another one reason is the legalization of same sex marriage in United States. Ph. D Abigail Ocobock has done a research about gay men’s relationships with families of origin in Iowa. Their relationships change a lot after the same-sex marriage legalized in Iowa. The results of the research are same sex marriage made gays be more recognized by their families, they got more support and some people even became more confident (Ocobock, 2013). After the same sex marriage legalized nationwide, a lot of families in all United States has change their attitudes. It is reasonable because instead of thinking it is right or wrong to be homosexuals, most parents consider more about their children’s happiness, and worry about the relationships of their children and children’s partners since the relationships are not protected by the government. So, when the supreme court legalized the same sex marriage, those parents who worried before change their attitudes soon. And other parents who did not change attitudes at the first time also change slowly, their relationships with homosexual children are meliorate. At this point, the family aspect is the easiest one to change their negative attitudes because most families care more about their children, so the acceptance of homosexuals within families was expected to raise in the future. Therefore, it is possible for homosexuals to be accepted by whole society. 

The last and biggest change which creates possibility for all people to approve homosexuals is related with religions. Religion is a serious factor in the discussion of homosexual topic. Except the influence of whole society, the religion influenced the gender roles a lot in the past, thus, religion shaped people’s recognition of marriage and caused the disapproval of homosexuals. Jane Edwards states in her journal article that “in 2004, the Australian government legislated to prohibit ‘gay marriage’; the religious right has lobbied vigorously for passage of this legislation” (Edwards, 247). The religious right in Australia believe the marriage is sacred and it could only happen between male and female. Looking from the essence, the religious rights are trying to safeguard the old family frame and keep men’s authority. As Edwards says, “specifically, the arguments of the Christian right-wing are redolent with foreboding that masculinity is becoming redundant and that men are losing influence and authority” (Edwards, 248). The masculinity is what influence many people, especially men, to generate the negative attitudes towards gay men. With the development of the society, female gets more and more rights, and plays more important roles in the society than before, this change greatly reduces men’s authority, especially in the marriage between lesbians, men are not necessary at all. The masculinity is losing importance now, and people who want to keep men’s authority tries to prohibit same sex marriage to eliminate the “bad” influences. That is why the religious right-wing work hard to prohibit same sex marriage, and it could also explain why men are less likely to support homosexuals than women.

In Andrew L Whitehead’s work, he pointed out that America as a country which was influenced by religious congregation deeply, religion became a battleground of homosexuality issue (Whitehead, 2013). Same as the religious right in Australia discussed above, the homophobia is tied with religions. And in a video of an opening class of Harvard University, the professor and students discuss should same sex marriage be legal or not. Those students who make statements all mention their religions, and their arguments are that their beliefs do not allow the homosexuality (GoshEnglish, 2013). And in Harbaugh, Evan and Eric W. Lindsey’s research which focuses on young adults, they find out that “Specifically, individual commitment to religion proved to be significantly related to higher levels of homophobia and heteronormative beliefs” (Harbaugh, Lindsey. 1116-1117). People’s negative attitudes are so deep seated and it looks like they and their religions will never accept homosexuals. But the real conditions in recent are not that worse. As more homosexuals act in some churches, other believers know more about homosexuals, and as result, they finally accept homosexuals attend the church services. According to Whitehead, that different congregations has different acceptances of homosexuality. These differences are due to many factors such as the history of the congregations, the attendance of homosexuality of the congregations, and the composition of the congregations. Also, the gender, age, region play important roles on influencing the congregations’ acceptances of homosexuality (Whitehead, 2013). To sum those factors, churches which have younger believers of a religion, more female than male are tend to accept homosexuals easier. And one new thought is some homosexual believers think the God does not make rules of human, instead, God wishes everyone happy and have a good life. This thought might not be accepted by other believers, but it shows people that the atmosphere in religions is more enlightened, and some rules are not as strict as past time. This change is not huge and drastic, and compare to the family aspect, it will take much more times for religions to totally accept homosexuals. But religious can adopt homosexuals over time just like they accept female to be ministers and preachers. It is a long process for homosexuals to be accept by religion, but these small changes give a hope that religions’ negative attitudes will turn into positive in some day, and give a possibility for homosexuals be accepted by all society.

In conclusion, the traditional recognition of gender roles and relationships has shaped society and religions’ attitudes homosexual a lot. The common idea of “nature” and “normal” formed in the history makes people see homosexuals as immoral, and even pathological. Some people have disapproved of homosexuals just because their idea of marriage and love is between male and female; additionally, some organizations disapprove of homosexual because they want to keep male’s masculinity and authority, and also stabilize the society structure they like; and some people, especially parents have disapproved because they believe the society will not accept their children’s different behaviors. However, these disapproving attitudes have changed a lot in recent years. The legalization of same sex marriage gave the equal marriage right to homosexual, and this decree changed public opinions dramatically. At the same time, those parents who worried about their homosexual children feel easier now because their children will be protected by the country. The transformation of gender role also change people’s attitudes towards homosexuals because they recognize that family, marriage, and love is not necessary to be form by partners of opposite genders. All of those positive changes give big possibilities for homosexual to be accepted by whole society in the future.
