I feel like I’m embroiled in a strange and exciting place in history.

You see, in just a single decade the word “faggot” went from a frequent schoolyard taunt to verbal poison.

Ask Kobe Bryant, who was fined more than both my parents’ incomes together–$100,000–for calling a referee a, um, “[eff-ing eff]” in an NBA playoff game. Only a month later, Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah, who was fined $50,000 for calling a fan the exact same thing.

Even though it was virtually unknown only a few years ago, the Westboro Baptist Church, has become one of the most hated institutions in America for holding up signs that read “God Hates Fags” at dead US soldiers’ funerals.

But Americans are not just becoming more antipathetic toward derogatory terms; they’re simply becoming more supportive of the LGBT community. Moreover, a May 20 Gallup poll revealed that for the first time in American history, a majority of Americans–53%–supported the idea that same-sex marriage should be recognized as equal to male-to-female marriage.

Looking back at my early childhood, that absolutely blows my mind. Only seven years ago, President Bush said that it was of “national importance” that Congress amend the US Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

Just in the past few years, the progress on the issue has been incredible. Almost all of New England (plus Iowa and Washington, D.C.) has legalized same-sex marriage–not the trifle of civil unions or “limited rights.” We’re talking about full equality under the law here.

This past fall, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton quickly jumped on board the “It Gets Better” campaign created in support of gay teenagers facing bullying and high suicide rates. Some unexpected faces in the crowd–conservative Christians such as Miley Cyrus and Meghan McCain–have come out in support of same-sex marriage and LGBT equality.

Even in the world of sports, supposedly a cesspool of anti-gay sentiment, there has been major progress recently. For the first time in his life, NHL “pest” Sean Avery of the New York Rangers received positive press when he declared his support for same-sex marriage in a video for the Human Rights Campaign. Soon afterward, when Phoenix Suns President and CEO Rick Welts came out of the closet, he was met with overwhelming support, not hatred. If there was disgust among NBA players and executives (and I am positive there was), it was kept secret, because those detractors know something that’s becoming truer every day: LGBT equality is coming.

So I guess I’ll say what I should have said at the beginning of this column: the fight for LGBT rights is the civil rights challenge of our generation. The generation that had equality and tolerance into its head is now recognizing more than anybody else gays and lesbians for what they are: equals who are to be tolerated. Unfortunately for the LGBT citizens of this country, the war will probably be prolonged and fought mostly at the state level. But the momentum has clearly shifted in favor of gay and lesbians, and it looks more unstoppable with each passing day.

However, that doesn’t mean it is unstoppable. If anything, it means that heterosexual supporters of gays and lesbians should fight harder than ever to make sure that LGBT citizens are treated as just that: citizens, who should be treated fairly and equally under the law, despite the religious or political beliefs of anyone else. The faster that LGBT equality is realized, the truer the idea that the US is a nation of free and equal citizens will be. Clearly, this new fight for civil rights is our generation’s golden moment, and we need to seize it.