It’s crazy to think that only one hundred years ago being gay was almost completely unaccepted and unheard of. This didn’t mean that it didn’t exist however it just stayed underground with very few people willing to come out. We’ve come along way in even the last 10 years.

We can’t forget the hardships faced by previous generations as we enter a new ear of what we hope is sexual enlightenment. The documentary “How We Got Gay” talks about just this and reminds us how things were for the LGBT community through-out history. Since the average text book does not cover the history of being gay, the struggle and the process of bringing it to the mainstream, this documentary fills that need.

The film starts with couples talking about tips and tricks that they used to stay hidden in a time where being gay wasn’t accepted. They met in public places such as parks and bar bathrooms to have sex. They went on double dates using a gay couple and a lesbian couple to make it look like two straight couples.

The documentary also dives into the myths and stories that surrounded people being gay. It illustrates how gay men and women were depicted as dirty and mentally ill. It was considered wrong on a religious level and sexuality was even debated over in science and medical journals.

It was a difficult time for people who sometimes even started to believe that they were unstable for being attracted to members of the same sex. At the time, many believed that they had conditions and disabilities and because of this grotesque misdiagnosis, many of or gay forefathers and “foremothers” never came out.

Columnist, Michael Musto, talks about his feelings on being gay. He sometimes wished that he could magically wake up with a girlfriend and all feelings of being gay wouldn’t be there.

“How We Got Gay” also takes a look at specialized schools and programs that were designed to teach the gay away and worse.

Overall, it does a good job of combining historical documents and presenting new ideals to show the timeline of the gay community and how far we have come. I would definitely recommend that all gay people check it out to learn about their history.