Breaking Barriers: Challenging and Transforming Outdated Core Beliefs

Throughout June 2025, in celebration of Pride month, Gayther is running its Straight Talk campaign. Weekly media releases designed to highlight key aspects taking place around the world today. This release focuses on outdated core beliefs.

Today, the LGBTQIA+ community has come a long way in many countries, with, in 2025, 166 (71.2%) of countries having decriminalised or never having laws in place that targeted LGBT people, to 64 (27.5%) of countries now recognising same-sex marriages and unions. Even with many countries and societies becoming more accepting, one thing remains, hidden in plain sight and in the collective consciousness of humanity.

"When you think of some of the worst parts of human behaviour, what words will frequently appear, immoral, deviant?" says Peter Williams, co-founder of Gayther.

The words and phrases describing many heinous acts are also associated with and have and are still used to describe the LGBTQIA+ community today. When an adult male abuses his position with a male minor, a soldier intimately assaults another soldier, or two or more prison inmates are intimate, the question is whether they identify as LGBTQIA+. The answer is not always yes. Sex is not always about connection or pleasure, as it can also be about force, taking away the dignity and self-worth of another. For thousands of years and during wartime, soldiers would physically and sexually assault their defeated opponents, yet if asked, would not identify as LGBT.

Even with that distinction, some still believe these people are LGBTQIA+; however, deviant acts are not specific to the community and ignoring this fact may help them in their belief that it is not happening among people like them. In reality, those identifying as heterosexual, historically and in more significant numbers, have committed similar acts. That is not to say that it is right or overthereism, but more an example that immoral acts cannot be attributed to just one group.

"Does a bias still exist today? One where people judge the community based on perceived actions rather than what is really happening."

The bias can be seen when homosexual was classified as a mental illness in 1952 by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), with its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) being used by many countries around the world. In 1952, homosexuality was listed as a sociopathic personality disturbance within the category of sexual deviations. This diagnosis included other behaviours like transvestism, paedophilia, and fetishisms. It was removed in 1973 due to research and a better understanding, but the grouping remains indicative of how it is perceived. So, being LGBT is not an illness, and crimes that would be considered deviant are also carried out in statistically larger numbers by those who identify as heterosexual, so why does this bias still exist today?

There are many examples from around the world of ordinary LGBTQIA+ individuals living everyday lives in loving relationships with children in supportive families, which are defined as conventional families with partners of the same sex.

Now, that is not to say all fetishes or activities are wrong. Especially where there are consenting adults, where no one is harmed, and where no reasonable crime is committed, rather than a moral judgment, all taking place in the privacy of their home or a discreet location, they should be allowed to do so without fear of the law or penalty. So immoral or deviant is not in the act but more in the ingrained, generational biases that still exist today.

"There is nothing wrong with intimacy, and acts carried out between consenting adults in the privacy of their homes or discrete locations."

By connecting with LGBTQIA+ individuals, understanding and learning more about each other, we all discover how we are more alike than what sets us apart, finding out that we all have similar goals, desires, ambitions, and often the primary distinction or difference being who a person is attracted to, who they love or how they choose to identify.

SOURCE
• 2025 Gayther Population Index (https://gayther.lgbt/community/lgbtq-population/).
• 2025 Worldwide LGBTQIA+ Equality Index (https://gayther.lgbt/community/equality-index/)

Gayther, part of Ovester
124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX United Kingdom
Email: press@ovester.om
https://gayther.com/media/gayther-pressroom/

Gayther LGBT is one of the largest online resources of LGBTQIA+ information. Tools and guides designed to be fun and easy to use, all within a platform offering positive content intended to inform, showcase and connect the global community and its allies. Home to a wide range of free services, including hundreds of detailed LGBTQIA+ travel guides, fun and games, articles and a dedicated social network known as Gayther Affinity.

This release was published on openPR.