IAmA 25yo gay guy. I want to anonymously thank all the many hetero people who support gay equality and make progress possible.

I still feel guilty over the fact that I was once extremely homophobic. I was also very religious. I stopped being religious and the rest just kinda fell into place. A human being is a human being. I apologize for my past follies. I'm with you all the way.

thanks to you and all the others who posted similar change of mind. please don't feel guilty, what matters is how you feel now and what you do now, not in the past.

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That's amazing. I grew up Baptist, in Texas, and what you describe is unimaginable in the church I knew. I don't have an answer to your specific question, but if someone had told me I could be OK with God it would have spared me and my family a lot of pain.

I'm straight but really involved in gay rights. I work for a local high school (doing tech stuff of course) and have been wearing this on and off for about 2 months. It just seemed like a bit more sincere of a statement than wearing a purple shirt once a year. If I can help some kid to feel better about themselves by just wearing a bracelet, then I think that I should.

amazing and inspiring

If you don't already, don't forget to wingman it for some of your straight friends from time to time.

lol I do it all the time, my brother used to drag me to parties as a prop etc.

When you encounter someone who opposes gay rights, what's your go-to conversion argument?

It depends on the nature of the opposition. irl I usually just avoid people who make a point of expressing anti-gay opinion; I've learned to accept that some people will never like me no matter what I do or say. Online I'll respond to false statements about how being gay is a choice, or how people are very selective in the parts of the bible they choose to obey.

I have a friend who is pro-gay rights/marriage, and not homophobic at all, but he still insists that he thinks for some people being gay is a choice. What are your arguments for a guy like him?

ask him when he chose to be straight. or is he choosing to not be gay at any moment.

I showed him that video and he seemed unmoved.

well then maybe he is "choosing" himself, and that's whole other problem.... the deep closet is real, some people insist it's a choice in order to explain their own choice to be repressed

Even if it's a choice, why does it matter that people choose this?

Even if, but it's not a choice. Who would choose to be bullied and mocked and hated? It doesn't make sense on any level.

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I can't imagine being anything but gay. But I have to admit my brothers have it easier and they feel safer in the world, so maybe I would choose that outcome.

Did you ever have a heterosexual relationship before coming out? I was surprised to find a gay friend of mine never had but I guess he knew all along and didn't really want to fake being straight. What was it like for you?

I knew I was different from when I was like 6 and came out age 13 to my parents, 15 to everybody. I did hook up with a woman one time in college, we were both drunk and, um, it kinda worked for a few minutes. And then we both started laughing. Otherwise, I'm all homo.

How did you know? I'm just curious because I didn't understand how I was a girl and everyone else was a boy when I was little. Been a tom boy ever since, and questioning here and there.

I have 2 older brothers and I could tell I was different from them. They could tell also. Around 10 years old I had a crush on a boy in my school is how I started to figure out the specifics. Also the other kids made sure to let me know I was "gay," not in the good way. Lucky I had older brothers around so it never got too bad. And very cool parents, makes all the difference.

Since this is IAMA, do gay men really hit on eachother Senator Larry Craig-style? I've always wondered...

to my knowledge, not openly gay men, just closeted dudes who are lying to their wives and the world.

A few months ago when I was riding in the car with my 15-year-old little brother, he asked me how I felt about gay people, gay rights, and gay marriage. I myself am straight, but I have so many precious people in my life who are still fighting for equality. I gladly told him that I thought that there is nothing wrong with homosexuality, that I think that everyone should have equal rights under the law, and that we all should be fighting for the civil rights of the LGBT community.
It was one of my proudest moments as a big sister to hear him enthusiastically agree with me, and to tell me of how he had stood up to friends at his school who were saying negative things about homosexuality. At an age where it is so easy to just agree with what your friends are saying, even if you don't believe it, it almost brought a tear to my eye to hear him proudly stand up for the rights of others.

that's awesome, sounds like a very cool kid.