I was thinking about my grandmother the other day, and had this sudden realization that she was surprisingly open-minded and forward-thinking. It was prompted by some of the “youngsters” at work jokingly singing a Back Street Boys song. I don’t know the title, but it’s the one that goes, “Everybody rock your body… Backstreet’s back, alright”.
And that reminded me … My paternal grandmother’s been dead for many years, but I remember that, when she died at 80-something, she had a near-lifesize cutout of one of the Backstreet Boys on her wall. And I can remember that she always liked “modern” music. She liked the Backstreet Boys, and I can remember back to the late 1970s or early '80s that she liked The Village People. And I can clearly remember her saying about The Village People, “Who cares if they’re gay? They make good music!” She was from a generation that, stereotypically would be against that kind of thing. Even my parents were all, “If they’re gay, don’t support anything they do!” mentality.
I think that, were she still alive, she would have voted in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in my state (Washington), when it appeared on the ballot recently, despite the fact that she was a hardcore Republican. I don’t know how she would have voted on the legalizing pot issue, since it was something that never came up in conversations with her. (And for the record, I was raised in the same hardcore-Republican household, but I voted “Yes” on both issues, even though I’m neither gay nor a pot smoker).
But I think my grandma was really forward-thinking and ahead of her time.
In some ways, sure. My maternal grandfather (died in 1997 at 83 yrs old) said to me in about 1985 or so, that computers were where it’s at in the future, as far as careers are concerned.
My aunt (75 yrs old) has always been pretty gay friendly- she had gay friends as far back as I can remember, and it just wasn’t an issue for her- she invited them to everything and just didn’t make any kind of issue about it- I think her thinking on the issue was that they’re her friends, and they’re welcome at her house and her events, and if we (meaning the family) didn’t like it, tough, and we could go somewhere else if we didn’t like it.
My Dad was apparently considered quite the kook back in the 1960s- apparently he was willing to discuss space travel and aliens and that sort of thing, and it just wasn’t the kind of thing people talked about back then, and Mom was having to constantly shut him up apparently.
My parents (in their mid 70s) still demonstrate in favor of Planned Parenthood, are active in the quest for same-sex marriage, and are just all around liberal types.
My grandparents have never really been socially forward-thinking, but grandpa was a vegetarian all the way back in WWII, and he and grandma met at a health food “meeting.” Of course I’m sure that most of what they were taught about “health food” is strongly considered woo these days, but I always found it pretty neat that grandpa was an OG vegetarian.
My maternal grandparents are dyed-in-the-wool DFLers and it’s a constant source of embarrassment for them how two of their kids (my uncles) grew up to be republicans. My paternal grandparents are hardcore liberal RCC, in fact, granddad is a deacon at their church but they’re totally in favor of marriage, gender, racial equality, you name it. They have a standing arrangement with all their grandkids to pay them 1000 dollars on their 21st birthday if they can truthfully say they’ve abstained from alcohol and illegal drugs. They pointedly mentioned that premarital sex was not on the list.
Hey, same for my maternal grandfather! He had a computer as one of the first businesses in Manchester. His own father, who was supposedly retired, didn’t trust “The Machine” and redid all its calculations by hand!
My great grandfather was a politician when the Nazis invaded, and he was immediately arrested. He spent the rest of his life working towards the EU, and supported reintegrating Germany so the same thing would not happen again. I always thought that was pretty forward thinking, after what they had just done.
My lovely grandfather-in-law was a traditional, religious man. The strong and silent type. When my cousin-in-law came out to him she was pretty nervous. He declared, to everyone’s surprise, that if she was gay there couldn’t be anything wrong with it and that he loved her no matter what. And that was that.