Saturday, March 22, 2014

First Gay Hug

If you are active in the online world (which if you are reading this I'm assuming most of you are) then by now you would have at least heard of, if not seen, the video that's been taking the internet by storm the last two weeks entitled "First Kiss". In the video twenty strangers were asked to kiss for the first time. Later it was discovered the video was actually an advertisement for an LA based clothing company (interesting form of advertising!).

Ever since that video was posted, there have been numerous parodies of it popping up all over, but it's the one posted by The Gay Women Channel that I'm really excited about. The video is called "First Gay Hug (A Homophobic Experiment)" and the concept behind it was to ask fifteen homophobic people to hug gay strangers.

I'll admit that before I pushed play I was a bit worried about how the experiment would turn out. I had a sinking feeling that not all the interactions would go well. However, I was very pleasantly surprised.

This video shows you that sometimes all it takes for a homophobic person to start changing their way of thinking is to have a good experience with someone that is gay. I'm not saying the homophobic people in this video are suddenly going to go join PFLAG or attend a Pride event, but you can see some of the tension and awkwardness start to fall away throughout their interactions.

To me, the reason this video is so interesting and so touching is because it shows how powerful a hug can be, and how, if you strip away labels, underneath everything we are all just people.There is no hidden agenda or sexual undertones to this video, it's just about hugging.

My favorites in the video are the elderly woman, the woman with her daughter, and the man in the striped shirt. They really made me smile!

I hope you all find this video as touching and inspiring as I have!
xoxo
s