This is how you get people to actually think
This video is five years old but it just came to my attention and I think it’s got a lot to teach us about communicating with straight people about being gay. It’s important because too many people are against equality for LGBTQ people because the very honestly believe it’s a lifestyle choice, not a characteristic you are born with. While this is absurdly irrational — who would choose a lifestyle where you are shunned, often in physical danger and where your rights are severely limited? — it does inform these people’s opinions on the expansion of rights for the LGBTQ community on things like marriage equality.
Travis Nuckolls and Chris Baker from Colorado Springs went around asking straight people if they thought being gay was a choice. If the person said yes or they weren’t sure, they then asked them very casually, “When did you choose to be straight?” and “Do you think it’s the same for gay people?” As Nuckolls and Baker say on the YouTube page for the video, these interviews “prove that asking the right question can be more important than anything you can tell someone.”
It’s brilliant.
Watch:
