I think this is a counter-productive attitude. The difference in the US between the 1850s (blacks in slavery, many women in abusive relationships with no legal protection or recourse because they were considered property, chinese and mexicans used as cheap labor but discriminated against mercilessly, gays all in the closet because their lives would be at risk if they came out, etc.), and the 1950s (gays nearly all closeted still, women’s lib movement not yet off the ground, Jim Crow and frequent lynchings, many top universities hardly accepting anyone not a WASP male, rampant discrimination in housing, hiring, politics, the mentally disabled brutally institutionalized against their will, and the physically disabled not guaranteed equal access to public infrastructure and instututions, etc.) and today is dramatic, and the trend is overwhelmingly obvious.

Sure, we still have problems with racism and sexism, and groups like transpeople and undocumented Mexican laborers are sometimes treated despicably by our society and its institutions, and we never managed to ratify the ERA, and various groups are still stigmatized and held back from various positions of power, so we shouldn’t stop the fight for justice and equality, especially equality under the law, but you can’t wave away all of the progress we’ve made with “Times hasn’t changed much.... This is the nature of our pyramid-like society.” That kind of defeatist attitude is not just sloppy reasoning but also damn poor public policy.

Shit, we have a black president, a female secretary of state and speaker of the house, numerous high-level officials and corporate execs and prominent ministers, etc. who are openly gay, a soon-to-be Latina supreme court justice, etc. Times have most definitely changed, and the changes run deep.