If Straight People Had To Come Out

In another humorous yet poignant role reversal video, BuzzFeed's “If Straight People Had To Come Out” shows the struggles of what it's like to come out to friends, family, co-workers, and even strangers. The video, released just a week after National Coming Out Day, brings to light the absurd and unfair situations that people face just for being something other than straight.

The video presents characters who explain they are straight in different social settings, opening up about their sexual orientation privately to family members, to friends trying to set them up at parties, and to co-workers at the office water cooler. The reactions range from confusion to worry. At one point in the video, a mother tells her son, "I just don't want you to go to hell because you chose to be straight."

The characters in the video also have to deal with friends telling them, “Maybe you’re just confused” and “It’s probably just a phase." Because there is an underlying assumption that heterosexuality (or in the case of the video, homosexuality) is the norm, the characters have to repeatedly come out by correcting this assumption when friends try to set them up, or when co-workers ask about their family.

The video points out how emotionally frustrating it is for people who are gay to have to continually come out in different situations, and to subject themselves to the unwelcome opinions of others. Hopefully, projects like this will help people who will never experience the challenges of coming out be more understanding and accepting of those who do.

Watch the video below to see for yourself.

Image: BuzzFeedVideo/YouTube