Even before the fictional Elmer Gantry men of the cloth have tumbled from their high places beyond the altars whenever daylight exposed their secret lives. Last week Rev. Matthew Makela of St. John’s Lutheran church in Midland, Michigan, was forced to resign after Queerty.com posted screen shots of him from Grindr, a social app for homosexual men. Makela, an associate […]

Earlier this week, House Republicans held a hearing on H.B. 4052, a bill that would prohibit local governments from passing employment-related ordinances that are more restrictive than state-level laws. Although it is called the “Local Government Employer Mandate Prohibition Act”, it really should be referred to as the “Local Government Control Prohibition Act” because it strips what is commonly known […]

Republicans have successfully branded themselves as the party that worships “local governmental control”. They want federal regulations repealed and the power given to the states on all sorts of things from the environment to the Affordable Care Act. But, when it comes to actual local control, where local municipalities set their own rules, the whole idea of “local governmental control” […]

When the owner of Memories Pizza in Indiana recently told reporters that she would refuse to bake pies for wedding receptions if the couple were gay or lesbian, the story went viral. Lawrence Billy Jones III set up a GoFundMe page to “relieve the financial loss endured by the proprietors’ stand for faith” and he encouraged supporters of the homophobic […]

One year ago today, Anne and I spent an extraordinary day at the County Clerk’s offices in Washtenaw and Oakland counties, watching as some of the 300+ same-sex couples were legally married for the first time in our state’s history. You can revisit that day with us in the post (HERE) that we put up featuring many of Anne’s outstanding […]

“What the state has joined together, it may not put asunder.” Connie Greer and Diane VanDorn of Ann Arbor (formerly Dexter). Read about their story HERE. In a huge rebuke to Gov. Rick Snyder, Attorney General Bill Schuette, and anti-LGBT homophobes in Michigan, a federal judge today ruled that the state of Michigan must recognize the marriages of the nearly […]

So, like it’s a like gay burger or what…? I’m not a fast food eating sort of dude but this right here is pure awesome. Burger King’s “Proud Whopper”. They did it at one location only in San Francisco but it needs to be done everywhere from time to time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBkAAortU_g Go, Burger King. I’m lovin’ it (so to speak.)

Leadership! [Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog] In a year-end interview with MLive, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder took the bold step of letting others lead on providing basic civil rights protections for members of the LGBT community. It was a proud moment: Gay-rights advocates were quick to point out that Michigan law does not currently […]

Vasectomies: Harming society since … wait. WHAT?!? I have written in the past about Jayne Rowse and April DeBoer, a Michigan couple who is suing the state to allow them, as a lesbian couple, to adopt each other’s children. When they brought their case before U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman, he encourage them to challenge Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriages […]

What does ‘not on my agenda’ actually mean? I can never remember… Rick Snyder’s self-described “relentless positive action” to make Michigan a better place to live and a more prosperous state does not apply to the LGBT community, despite the damage our anti-gay laws are doing to our economy. He was recently asked about extending civil rights protections to members […]

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 after the jump.