I had the same one. I used to make jokes about gays when I was younger, then my daughter said "Mummy we don't need to worry about the people who love each other, just the ones who hate each other". Attitude change immediate.

I grew up in Oz in the 60s. I had no knowledge of anythign other than Ozzie men and women having kids. I found people from other countries friendly and interesting and the same with our indigenous people. 70s I went through secondary school and became aware of racism but not serious. We would all call each other names and make jokes. But these guys were our friends and noone else was allowed to make fun of them. One of my closest friends at high school was chinese, the other was Ozzie and gay. Again, the ocassional slang jest, but nothing serious. Glad to say little has changed except many more people admit to being gay.

I grew up in a small town in MO, I never hated gays but treated them with less than respect for years. Then, in 1984 while living in CA I moved across the street from a gay couple. I went to great lengths to avoid them although my girlfriend was friendly to them. I worked nights so when my gf was at work I had to watch my son and try to sleep. Somehow he got outside and I hear this from the window:"now Frankie (my son), you know your dad doesn't want you outside while he's sleeping, lets go back inside". The gay neighbor saw my son and walked down the street and made sure he was safe. Even though I had treated him like crap. That neighbor taught me what a asshole I was, I made sure he knew how grateful I was and how sorry I was I had treated him so bad. He said no worries, just treat gays like everyone else. I have, I fight for their rights whenever I can make a difference.

I've realised from my youth mainly that most so-called friends are not friends apart from dogs.

I just got tired of all the hate I had one day. Don't get me wrong there are still some types that deserve my hate and get it. But much of the world and life is OK with me now. Not straight? That's cool. Believe in the flying spaghetti monster? Glad that works for you.
Abuse the helpless? Now you deserve my hate. Major asshole? Got some hate for you too. The list is short for those types I hate but long for those types I don't.
I feel much better now that I have had my epiphany and live it. It's too bad the rest of my bio family seems to relish hating, I guess it's easier than understanding.

That one is the big one for me. It is pretty easy to see someone is different and justify it as wrong with religion. If I'm being perfectly honest it still grosses me out a little bit. I know that's not a nice thing to say, but it's true. What I came to realize was, "who fucking cares if I'm grossed out by it". Seriously, what does it matter whether or not it makes any sense to me. Not making sense to me doesn't make it wrong.

To me, gender issues were almost nonexistent until I came to realize in 2014 that I'm a partial transmale and androgynous. I was vaguely aware of them, and that certain favorite relatives cohabited with LGBTQ patners, but since my parents didn't care, I didn't either.

After I realized what I am, I began to realize that many friends and family members were LGBTQ also and began educating myself..pouring over Kindle books, gender issue articles, visited LGBTQ forums, trying to get a handle on it.

After that, I could see that the GOP, alt-right, and white evangelicals were my enemies, and that they were against anyone who wasn't a white, cis, hetero person, preferably male.

Thanks for changing your attitude towards homosexuality but I'm Gay and I love a good "queer" joke. I think we have to lighten up and laugh more. Everyone is just too sensitive these days. When I was young I thought smart people went to college and dumb people learned a trade. Wow was I wrong!

When I was a kid I made told gay joke and the worst thing you could call some one was a fag. But I don’t think I ever was homophobic just going with the crowd. I since grew up been to many gay bars with friends always have a good time. I consider myself a friend of the LGBT community and have marched side by side with them.

I have foound that love is love, caring is caring, in this world where there is so much pain who are we to judge anyone who finds love!

I love that you posted this! I call it the Ellen Effect, meaning that she is the prime example of how simple exposure to nice people who happen to belong to a given demographic can do wonders for acceptance and respect.
I, too, had hang ups about homosexuality, but in my case, it was trickier, because I was gay and couldn't accept it.
I was also Republican-leaning and devout Pentacostal, so you can begin to imagine the internal conflict.
All those conservative outlooks are totally changed for me.