I was already working on today’s post (in case you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been posting once a day for the last 255, no make that 256 now, days), when the latest freudenfreude item turned up, and it’s too good not to pass along:
It’s not a secret that the best (though certainly not guaranteed) means of helping people to overcome prejudices like these is for them to get to know a member of the hated outgroup. It’s one thing when Black people or Mexican immigrants or Jews are a nameless, faceless monolith. It’s another thing entirely when they start to be individuals with a name and a face and palpable humanity.
As it turns out—and this is now supported by a large academic literature—the techniques used by Davis works particularly well when it comes to anti-LGBTQ prejudice. And that brings us to the story of Joshua Nash, who was in the news this week, and who is the primary inspiration for this item. For 40 or so of his years, Nash internalized the anti-LGBTQ messaging of the leaders of his evangelical church. He was no Proud Boy, to be sure, but he was certainly no friend to the LGBTQ community, either.
