Can you tell?

In the video above, YouTuber MarkE Miller asks guys at his university if they think he’s gay. He finds that “guys just don’t give a shit”. Times have changed. The video follows up on a similar video from last month in which he asks girls if they think he’s gay.

This kind of thing was unimaginable when I was his age: Simply asking the question could’ve meant being beaten up—or worse. This is what I meant by “times have changed”. To be sure, there are areas—even in supposedly modern, advanced Western nations—where being openly gay is dangerous, even among university-aged folks. There’s still a violent homophobic (and in this case, that IS the correct word…) element in some places, the Deep South of the USA in particular (but not exclusively).

I think the most important thing isn’t that anti-gay hatred, bigotry and violence still exist—of course they do. Instead, the important thing is that for so many young people today, the fact that someone is gay simply doesn’t matter. That gives me hope.

I didn’t realise it right away, but I’d actually seen one of MarkE Miller’s videos a couple month ago when someone posted “Awkward Kissing” on social media. That video features him and the boyfriend he mentions in this video. After I realised that, I went back and watched their earlier videos. It still fascinates me the extent to which younger gay men are willing to put their lives “out there”. It fascinates me, to be honest, because in my day we were not.

Times have certainly changed.