(television announcer mumbling)
- So, how do you feel about the whole
filming each other doing PDA in public thing?
- I don't know how I feel about it.
I guess I'm a little nervous about it,
but at the same time excited
'cause it's not like it's not something we ever do,
but it's something we should be able to do.
- I'm a little scared, to be honest.
- I've never had experiences like that per se,
but last week, this man started following me from my car
all the way to the apartments yelling out faggot.
So, what would be your best case scenario doing this?
- Best case scenario would be
getting kind of completely ignored,
no looks, no nothing, just blending in.
- Then what would be your worst case scenario?
- The big one that is very obvious is somebody gets violent
or overly aggressive.
Our first date was a tropical storm.
- It was a hurricane that downgraded to a tropical storm
and everybody in Florida freaked out
and shut down all the businesses.
The only thing open was a Starbucks,
so we went to Starbucks and we sat down for six hours.
- And just talked.
There was just the most natural conversation
I've really ever had with anybody.
- Aw!
Since that first date, we got engaged,
we moved to Los Angeles, and we have two animals.
- Dog and a cat.
Not doing PDA and stuff is not from our families
'cause our families have been nothing but loving
and accepting and caring towards us,
but it has been a lot towards just
experiences from the outside world.
- Day one.
Today, you guys can visit any public space with a sidewalk.
Once there, we need you guys to kiss.
Once you kiss, you may sit on the sidewalk
and read the second page.
How public of a space are we talking?
- Yeah, I don't know.
- Okay, so we've literally switched spots 5,000 times.
- The last spot, I saw an army veteran
and I didn't want him to get mad.
- He was an army veteran?
- Yeah, he had an army veteran hat.
- Is that respectful that we didn't do it in front of him
or is it silly that we didn't do it in front on him?
- I don't know.
- 'Cause he technically fought for our rights.
Okay, ready?
- Are we... - Yeah.
Okay, I guess it's time to read the letter.
- Yay!
The folded one... - Oh, the lady
in the car waved.
- In April 2015, Zachary Johnson and Casey Williams
were attacked by Stuart Butler in Huntington, West Virginia
after Butler saw them kissing on the sidewalk.
Butler was arrested and faced with
misdemeanor assault charges,
but courts rules that it was not a hate crime
because sexual orientation is not protected by law
within the state.
- Today you can go out to the mall or a restaurant
holding hands.
After having done both, you may read the second page.
When we go out to dinner,
we sit across from each other and we talk.
We don't ever sit on the same side
so as not to disturb other diners.
- I don't think that normal people
typically sit next to each other unless they're...
- Normal people?
- Normal people, I don't know.
- [Jason] Heterosexual couples?
- [Christian] Heterosexual couples.
- See, we're part of the problem!
- We are part of the problem.
- We're normal. - Yeah.
- So, the best part is that no one's even acknowledging
- Yeah. - This,
they're just going about their lives.
I mean, there's a few side glances,
but I think that's just normal
'cause I'm giving people side glances too.
They're doin' it too.
He stared you down?
Let's see what today's fact is.
Okay, in July 2018 in Seattle,
Castor Kwak assaulted a man
for holding hands with another man.
He used derogatory language, spit in the man's face,
and stabbed him following a physical altercation.
It's reported he told police that he assaulted the men
because they were gay.
Kwak faces hate crime charges.
How do you feel about walking around the mall
and going to dinner and...
- This time I felt more comfortable.
I didn't really have a panic like I did yesterday.
I think it's just the environment.
- The more I do this, the more I realize that it's so silly.
We're glancing around like
is anybody gonna give me problems if I try to do this?
It's so silly.
- But it's silly the fact that we have to do it,
it's not silly that we're doing it.
- No, it's silly that we have to do it,
not silly that we're doing it.
We're doing it for safety, but...
- Yeah, we have to make that distinction
because although I enjoy the fact
that I am kissing you at The Grove and stuff like that,
I'm still very aware of how dangerous it is.
- Of course, and this is in Los Angeles.
- Yeah, and this is in LA. - Imagine in other places.
Today, you guys need to go to a straight bar and hold hands.
Once you've held hand and are seated, you may kiss briefly.
This one might be a little bit more scary
than just standing on the sidewalk.
- Yeah, a little more risque.
Does a wine bar count as a straight bar?
- I feel like they want us to walk in holding hands
and go take a seat.
- Oh, no, it's Sunday football (laughs).
- Oh, that's gonna be interesting.
Let's do this, holdin' hands.
In we go.
Alright.
- I'm nervous.
- It's fine.
Let's go, going upstairs.
What's going on?
(television announcer mumbling)
Alright, so I'm recording Christian,
but discretely recording the couple behind him
who seems to have no trouble laying on each other
and we're here stressing over holding hands
and kissing each other in public.
Nobody blew up in flames, the place is still in tact.
- Well, there were some people who turned around
and looked at us.
- But they didn't say anything.
- Yeah, but they did stare,
and then they kept on checking back
to see if we were gonna do it again.
I have a lot of anxiety,
especially when it comes to sports type of things.
I was an athlete as kid,
and I hung out with three people until high school.
And when I came out,
one of them tried beating me up
because people assumed that we were together
'cause I came out of the closet.
- Well, let's read this note.
In 2009, Justin Goodwin, an openly gay man,
was mocked with homophobic language and beaten
by a group of male assailants outside a bar.
Following the attack, during which his jaw, eyes sockets,
and cheek bones were broken,
he had his face surgically reassembled
in seven hours of surgery.
He killed himself in 2011,
which his lawyers argue was a result of the trauma
he incurred during the attack.
Of course it was.
- Yeah.
- I'm seeing a pattern with all of these.
Our biggest fear here, in Los Angeles,
is that someone will say something to us,
and there's people in other parts of the country and world
whose biggest fear is beheading,
hung, thrown off a building.
- This isn't happening in the 50s,
this isn't happening in the 40s, this is happening in 2011.
The last one was 2015.
I'm sorry, I'm just really anxious, this was...
- This was a lot, it was...
- I love you.
I really do, and I love him so much,
and we've been together for so long
and I feel like we have the most amazing relationship,
but still, moments like this, moments in public,
it's so scary for me,
the thought that I could have him taken away
because someone's homophobic.
And I'm scared of that.
I'm scared that because I wanna hold my fiance's hand
that someone's gonna take him from me.
(eerie music)
(uplifting music)