#tomyunbornchild

In early March 2012, the hashtag "#tomyunbornchild" became a worldwide trend on Twitter. By and large, these tweets were loving, hopeful messages to the next generation -- but many people saw it as an opportunity to express hate speech towards LGBT children: http://storify.com/homophobes/100-hom...

Reading their bile, the only thing I could think was: how would we feel if we heard actual parents saying this to actual children?

I got the idea on a Thursday. By Sunday, we -- me, my boyfriend, and whatever friends we could find to help us -- had it filmed.

It's easy to dehumanize hate speech online because we've gotten so used to seeing it. We tell ourselves that it's the product of trolls, of random, anonymous strangers.

Except they're not. They're real people. Many of them will be parents. And some of their children will be gay.

But what can we DO about it? I don't think there are any easy answers.

Whenever you believe life begins, I hope we can all agree: life is essential, and rare, and precious. We can't stop anyone from having kids. But we can resolve to stop this toxic cycle. We can wish better for our own children. And we can support the kids who weren't so lucky.


UPDATE 4/18/12: We've added language captions in Spanish and Polish! Huge thanks to Javier Cárdenas and Agnieszka Wąsowska for their generous help. A Hebrew translation may be on the way soon!

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Writer/Director: Charlotte Moore
Producers: Brian Lee and Nick Heim
Post-Production: Brian Lee
Grip: Dustin Webb
Music: Roger Lima

With:
Allan Maule
Katie Kuekes
Maggie Matthews
Dustin Webb
Charlotte Moore
Michelle Henderson
Christine O'Neal

Spanish Translation: Javier Cárdenas
Polish Translation: Agnieszka Wąsowska

Special thanks to Rucci Productions and Bright Spot Studio for the use of their space and equipment.

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[SaitoNetwork Xile]

This is ridiculous, you Pro-Homophiliac's will put out the spotlight on random idiots threatening unborn children as "the" people who are against the mental ideology of "Homophilia" but you won't put the spotlight on people who are against it and make sense as to reason why. This video isn't exposing the truth, it's about making your propaganda more appealing; no child is born gay, you choose whom you sleep with and you choose what you fantasize. Make the right choices in life, not excuses.

[Cavatica]

Let's pretend for a minute that you're not deliberately ignoring mountains of objective empirical evidence, countless personal experiences, and thousands of years of homosexuality, back to ancient Rome and probably before. Let's pretend we all live in your fantasy world where ANYONE wakes up and willfully /decides/ to subject themselves to the ridicule and censure of their friends, families, and governments just to get a little tail. Let's pretend homosexuality IS a choice.

So WHAT?

[InflatablePlough]

OK, while homophoby is not something to be supported, I have to say the video was pretty hilarious... come on, how am I supposed to take it seriously with that music and editing... just too funny!

[Cavatica]

It's still not as hilarious as the word "homophoby." 

[Cavatica]

Spanish and Polish captions are finally up! Mega thanks to Javier Cárdenas and Agnieszka Wąsowska for volunteering to help.

-C

[Jaime V]

This people should go to hell and never have kids this type of people should never become parents either.

[Cavatica]

I'm approving this comment because I sympathize with these feelings of anger and frustration, but I want it on record that I generally don't condone this kind of vengeful condemnation. I've seen a lot of it in the responses to this piece, and it makes me sad. We need to be BETTER than this. That is the whole damn point.

[Diamond Song]

To my unborn child: If you're gay, I'll love you just the same, including giving you embarrassing lectures on using protection.

[dannydontgoin237]

Very disturbing, very sad and very powerful video. Excellent work. The fact that anyone ever tweeted that kind of vitriol breaks my heart. Thank God I shun Twitter. Not sure what to say, still shivering here. You're a great filmmaker as well as a great writer.

[obsidianroselace]

please, for the love of god, talk to a competent (competent should be bold and underlined) doctor about safe sex practices. because you are SEVERELY misinformed. about a LOT of things. who ever told you that is completely ignorant of normal and safe sex practices. (and this is coming to you via a straight virgin who was taught what's safe and what's not by COMPETENT medical professionals)

[erin brianne]

... Omg have no words other than WHAT THE CRAP!? BRO?!

[lshatok]

Aren't you being intolerant yourself? Who mad you judge and jury? Who decided who gets to have kids and who does not? You? Pathetic.

[theguyinthefunnyhat]

To my unborn child; I'm gay so the fact that your here is fucking miracle. Lots of love, dad and father.

[Anthony Lee]

I once saw a Philosoraptor meme that asked "If a DNA test could show if an unborn child was gay...would Christians be for or against abortion?"

And now I know the answer.

[lexigore]

This is genius. If my child ends up being gay, I have plenty of successful, wonderful, awesome gay friends who can be a role model to her so I hope she doesn't have to spend a second "in the closet" in fear of being who she really is. Gay or straight, I love my child and people are people regardless of their sexual preference. <3

[absdabs4]

psychotic!!!!! epic!!!!

[AtlasShruggery]

Romney voters. 

[SaitoNetwork Xile]

All that I see in you, is someone who wants to start a controversy; you've got nothing better to do than start fires and put the spotlight on tweets that are better deserved to be ignored than made popular. You just made every single commenter who tweeted those comments happy, you gave them a thrill; you don't even know if half of those comments were just jokes, a great deal of those comments came from teens! Congratulations, you just made pointless controversy a reality. I bid you, good day.