Perspective.

[nwhiker]

"Noah and PJ's Surprise Wedding First Dance (complete version)" (Watch on YouTube)

I saw this video pretty close to the day it hit the interwebs, and immediately showed it to dh. I showed Perry when he got home the following weekend.

I guess I forgot to show it to Linnea, and today, when someone posted an update about the fundraiser attached to it, I mentioned it to dh and Linnea asked "what?". She hadn't seen it, which was suprising, so she watched, and like everyone else I think, loved it.

I also explained about the fundraiser for It Gets Better Project and I noticed that she didn't seem to grasp the concept.

Further chat revealed that... she had no idea that gay kids were subjected to the amount of abuse that they are, or that families might reject a gay kid or a trans one etc. I mean, she'd heard about it, but thought it was very academic and that kids were rejected by family only in OMG extreme cases. She's grown up in a climate that is much more accepting, and being Linnea, the places she goes on the internet appear to be more accepting that average.

It probably also has something to do with the fact that our very conservative and religious neighbour family have accepted the gay older son (he had two sons from a previous marriage) and his partner (soon to be husband, I think). And the other neighbours have a son who is, I suspect, gender fluid, if not trans, and they've always been very supportive of it (before his mom died, she was great about helping him express his personal choices in clothing, grooming, makeup etc, and his dad is totally supportive).

But yeah, it was interesting. She was, of course, horrified.

Part of it is the LD, part of it is Linnea, part of it is us, but sometimes Linnea seems to to float through the world lacking focus on some things, while being so very aware of others. She notices some things, like poverty and homelessness and understands that they exist. She despises racism and is aware of it, and how pervasive it is. And yet, despite 2 of her friends being gay, and one trans (I think...), she'd never completely understood that coming out to family could be a family life ending event.

Right now, I suspect she's downstairs, instagramming that video to everyone on her list who might not already have seen it! :-)