Since the era of witch hunts to oust homosexuals has ended and the abolishment of laws that took away the rights of gay people, homosexuals have gained a lot of legal traction and rights.
But they still remain by and large shunned by a society that fears the minority.
In many communities negative homosexual sentiment still exists and gay people must hide 'in the closet' just like gay men and women have been forced to do for hundreds of years.
This life that they are forced to live ends up making them feel alone in the world and is the reason for the high suicide rates in the gay community.
It is estimated that between 30 and 40 percent of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) youth have attempted suicide.
Another large cause for this is bullying.
Although bullying doesn't usually escalate to murder for LGBT like it has before, the internet and increased social networking has allowed bully's to take their fight from school onto the internet.
This makes it impossible for their victims to escape their reach.
But the ant-gay sentiment is not only felt by those who openly oppose homosexuality or bully them, but also from some who attempt to openly support it.
Although popular opinion has been swinging towards supporting gay rights for the past few decades, many people that claim to support them are actually teaching ant-gay sentiment through jokes.
The majority of the country supports homosexuals in their pursuit of marriage, but members of the LGBT community are still seen as a separate and lower class of people.
From a very young age children are taught that being gay is a negative thing.
Both their parents and peers teach them that if something is bad or unsavory it should be called 'gay'.
The same goes for people and jokes.
If someone is doing something that is bad, weird, or feminine they are called gay or a number of other words that mean the same thing.
Most people don't use it to offend homosexuals, but it is used as a joke that is meant to shame the person they are directing the insult towards.
The use of the literal terms 'gay' and 'faggot' to shame others is instilled in us at a very young age and becomes a very hard habit to break.
The use of these terms as insults creates the general sentiment that being gay is okay, but it's not okay if you are gay.
This can become very confusing for many people, LGBT and otherwise, and hinders the gay civil rights movement, making them out to be second class citizens.
These types of feelings are not limited to children on the playground, they can be seen in popular culture as well.
For example, recently the roast of James Franco was aired on Comedy Central.
Almost every person who talked about James Franco made comments about his sexuality calling him gay because he falls into a few stereotypes of gay men.
Seth Rogan is one of the comedians who told these jokes "He's a tough guy to pin down, although I've heard many guys have been able to do it.
" Another example of this comes from MTV's show Wild 'n Out in a segment called 'Pause' where two players of the same sex get into uncomfortable positions and say pause when they don't want to continue.
On one episode featuring this game Nick Cannon, the host, claims that the game is about to 'dispel the rumors' that hip-hop is anti-gay.
But by watching the show it is obvious that each male player quits as soon as the situation gets a little bit 'gay' as if they are protecting their sexualities from being questions.
So in this process of trying to avoid this sentiment, they actually perpetuate it.
People of the LGBT community have been exploited for comedic reasons, and consequently, shunned for the way they are.
Laughter is a great thing, but is it worth the pain?