“I’ve had a change of heart based on a personal experience,” said Senator Rob Portman in 2013 when announcing that his own son coming out inspired a shift in his stance towards marriage equality. For the previous Congress, the Senator received a 0 from the Human Rights Campaign’s scorecard for supporting LGBTQ rights in Congress. Perhaps this is an extreme example, but it points to a larger issue. Personal exposure to marginalized communities can help humanize them, but this acceptance is not sufficient to dismantle the systems of oppression and discrimination holding them down.