From what I can tell as someone that has never had to do it – coming out is a really scary thing to do. It’s full of anxiety of not being accepted by the people you hold in highest regard. It’s fraught with the fear of losing your loved ones.
It’s a terrible, messy, overwhelming thing, and it’s pretty much about time that the conversation around it changed for the better.
The team from Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras have put together a brilliant little video about the nuances of coming out as something “different” (read: totally and utterly normal) to the family – the ones whose opinions we value the most.
In a family full of BBQ sauce-lovers, the son of the fam stands up at his dad’s birthday and reveals to the family that he’s not like them. It’s a bit of a big deal.
The beauty of this vid is that it points out that differences are really not a big deal. Who cares if you like tomato sauce? Nobody gives a shit what you like to put on your sausage sangas at Bunnings on the weekend, or whether you dabble in a bit of relish and mustard in your down-time.
The absolute ripper moment of this one is actually the almost-throwaway shot of the son kissing his partner, and holding hands as a sign of comfort and support – complete with wedding bands.
That’s the true message here – marriage equality is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. It doesn’t change Sunday BBQs with the family, it doesn’t result in the world ending in a fiery mass of carnage.
The fact that it’s almost glossed over as an accepted, normal, perfectly-OK moment in the bigger picture of the short film speaks the most.
Photo: Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
