Being hated could be a sign of progress because if it means Gandhi Phase 1 ("first they ignore you") has been surmounted. What precedes open hate is erasure, whereby queer people are made to be invisible. In part this means that queerness is an unspeakable topic. When it needs to be referred to in order for it to be repressed, there's opaque language like "obscenity" and "sins against nature".
Queers are also made to be unthinkable: we all learn an elaborate system of sexuality and gender in which there are two (and only two) natural and opposite sexes that exert mutual attraction, each with its own (complementary) personality archetype, designated place in the world, and code of acceptable behaviour. In Gandhi Phase 1, the sexuality-gender system is taken for granted and mostly subconscious. Concepts like heterosexual and cisgender cannot even be intelligibly expressed because there are no counterpart queer concepts to contrast them with. There are also, as far as anyone is concerned, no queer people.
Once Gandhi Phase 1 has been overcome, people whose sexuality or gender does not fit into the dominant sexuality-gender paradigm are automatically seen as deviant, abnormal, derivative, ancillary or suboptimal because the sexuality-gender system is the fixed foundation of all thinking about bodies, pleasures, and desires. This is where gays and lesbians are; at some point beyond Gandhi Phase 1. At least they can say no one is ignoring them anymore.
Consciousness of gays and lesbians has exploded onto the cultural scene, whereas before they were relegated to unconsciousness. However, there are many more queer people who have not yet broken out of the erasure phase. We are hardly a blip on the cultural radar.
People who are transgender, transexual, trans*, genderqueer, genderfluid, bigender, pangender, intergender, agender, third gender or third sex, drag queens, drag kings, androgynes, transvestites, crossdressers, two-spirits, hijras, kathoey, travestis, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, paraphiles, polyamorous, intersex or any other queer identity are sidelined from discourse. These are the people whose very existence has yet to be recognized.
An egalitarian society needs awareness of queer people of all stripes. We cannot accept rights for just a few; in the 1950s, the fact that women in Canada could vote did not make it okay that First Nations people couldn't. That gays and lesbians are now racing towards Gandhi Phase 4 ("then you win") does not make it okay that most queer people are still at the starting gate.
