Straight People Need to See More Gay Kisses

There was a distinct outpouring of disgust when Michael Sam kissed his boyfriend after being drafted on Saturday night. Some of it was just outright bigotry, but Mark Joseph Stern at Slate was interested to see many people saying they supported Sam in theory, but were nonetheless uncomfortable with the display. "Is it possible to support gay rights, but still be grossed out by gay people?" Stern asks. The people saying they're against all PDA are clearly being disingenuous. "We are constantly inundated by heterosexual kisses" and we don't blink at them.

Straight people can and do kiss pretty much anywhere, but "gay PDA remains startlingly rare in 2014," in part because of society's long history of homophobia. "There's an obvious feedback loop problem here: So long as gay people are uncomfortable kissing in public, straight people won’t be comfortable seeing it." Gay people everywhere should be thanking Sam for doing his part to break that cycle—and following his lead. Click for the full column.