ABC News correspondent John Quiñones has been showcasing interesting “What Would You Do?” segments for 5 years now but this is one that fell through the cracks on us.
Imagine you were a teenage athlete coming Out to your best friends and teammates in the middle of a sneaker store. Now imagine that their reaction was far from positive, downright homophobic even. Imagine it was the gay teen athlete’s own coach being homophobic. This is what young actors reenacted in this segment. This fear is what keeps many masculine gay men of color closeted for years, even decades, after they’ve accepted that they were gay or bisexual.
John Quiñones’ experiment on this scenario aimed to test the reaction to the strangers around this situation. How would they react to hearing a teen coming Out to his friends only to be rejected and ridiculed. Would that join in? Would they laugh to themselves? Would they try to distance themselves? Or would they come to the teenagers defense?
It turns out the reaction was that latter. Most people who observed the made up scene reacted admirably. If you’re in the closet or living in paranoia about your sexuality, there’s NO WAY you don’t come away from this video feeling a little less fearful.
Or….this could all be made up bullshit. Are these good-hearted strangers actually actors themselves? Or were they coached? Did they know about the “hidden cameras” and pretended to support they “gay teen” so they could have 15 minutes of fame? Am I over-thinking it? Possibly.
What I do know is this video was pretty cool regardless.
Its refreshing to see all the support the actor portraying the gay guy revised when he came out to his friends. I think the people where coming from a genuine place when they step in and vocalized there support for the young man. I was in a real life what would you do situation last year with my brother and a few of his teammates. They were in my car talking about a teammate and how was gay and whole bunch of teenage boy BS. Long story short I did what the people in video did and I urged my bother to treat and respect the his teammate the same way he did before he knew he was gay. Ironically I told my brother about myself that same night and he was cool with It. Great post Nick
PS I love the new site fellas…It took me a second to get the use to the new the layout but I got it down and I’m feeling it and the new name!
I was wondering if anyone would step in if there was an adult involved and not just kids, and that man didn’t disappoint
It was really cool that everyone we saw who supported the kid was black
Please let this had been real people and not actors. I am happy that these are people in the black community being supportive. You can’t always judge a book by its cover especially with the last dude to speak up.
This was well done. It is good to see people..especially black people stand up for what is right. We have come a long way..but that does not mean we stop..we keep moving forward….
This is a great topic because just recently someone was saying something about one of my co-workers. The person was saying that it was wrong for him to be openly gay and in ministry. I know beneath that was some disdain for him working with young boys as well. I told them that it’s not right to judge others. I’m not a Christian but I did learn that. I ended my soapbox by saying what he eats does not make me shit. They looked puzzled but they got it and changed the subject.
I often times don’t get involved in situations like this because its not always safe; but being a Man it’s hard to sit back and not protect women and children…Kudos to all those that had the courage to speak up and get involved.
I would like to see them do this experiment in a small southern town….. I believe northerners a are alot more accepting and progressive in the way that they think.
I agree this was a great experiment by the show. I was glad to see that they were all african american. I also liked how they showed different situations. I’m curious however to see them take it a little farther. I would’ve loved to see them use men. It may be me, but I feel as society we are inclined to protect children no matter the situation. I also would like to do it in a southern city that’s not Atlanta to see how people would react to this. All in all this was a great one!
My favorite one of these was when they had a little boy wanting girlie toys and the parents berating him. The store customers came to the childs defense. I think there was one where a kid came out to his parents at a restaurant and people stuck up for him.
This was great. I was happy to see most of the people supporting the teen.
I watch this show sometimes, I hate I missed this episode. I’m glad they did this. I really liked how all of the people in their experiment were black folks, it’s good to see that some in the black community are not homophobic. I hope all of it was real though, it would be a shame if it wasn’t!
Damn, this really touched me… Restored some faith in humanity and shit. Might have to show this to my students!
WOW…was really pleasantly surprised by the reactions of people. My initial thoughts were people were going to join in with the bashing, but that did not happen…maybe people are really becoming open-minded and realize someone sexuality doesn’t define their character.