In my opinion, the most important recent advancement for the queer community in recent years in the United States is the SCOTUS ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015 that the right for same-sex couples to be married under the same terms and conditions as opposite-sex couples is guaranteed by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protections Clause of the 14th Amendment. This basically means that same-sex marriage is a fundamental right that all 50 states must adhere to. Not only is this a massive civil victory, I believe that this greatly improved the public opinion on queer people. To me, marriage appears to be a core value of the idealized American family unit because it invokes the idea of achieving shared financial stability, purchasing a home, and having children together; so the idea of a same-sex couple getting married implies and normalizes that they would also be capable of fulfilling those roles. With the legality of same-sex marriage, there are no longer any major legal differences between a same-sex couple and and an opposite-sex couple and therefore the process of eliminating negative socially perceived differences between such couples (and queer people in general) can progress full-force. Many more LGBTQ+ legal matters are still being battled, but national protection of same-sex marriage was a monumental victory and acknowledgment of queer people and remains one of the most significant events regarding the community within my, at the moment relatively short, lifetime.
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