Gay, interracial couple discusses how they have been treated in the 28 countries they have visited over the last six years.

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE, USA, March 29, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- This week’s episode of the podcast “Bigger, Better World” is special, in that it touches on a topic that relates to much that is going on in our own country these days.

It is a follow-up conversation with the previous week’s guests, Todd Hilton and Damon Morris. Last week, they were introduced as a married couple, but it was not brought up again in the discussion of their choice to sell everything they owned and start traveling around the world, living a few months at a time in different countries. It was also never mentioned that Damon is a black man; it just wasn’t germane to the topic.

This is a timely topic, given the current atmosphere in the States, where it seems like minorities and the LBGT community seem to be facing more discrimination and having their rights brought into question once more. Issues that most Americans thought were settled matters, like accepting gay marriage and interracial couples, are for some reason being targeted once again in some states.

So it is interesting to hear these two men talk about their experiences as they have traveled the last six years to over 28 countries around the world.

Although they name a few places in the Middle East where they had to pretend they were not a couple, for the most part they have been pleasantly surprised by how much acceptance they have found outside of the US.

On a trip to Bali, after their tour guide continued to tell them he could take them places “where the ladies are”, they finally told him straight up that they were a married couple, and would that be a problem? “Not at all,” he told them, “Love is love, and that's what I teach my family.”

Damon confessed that he and his family had big concerns as they began their journey, that he would face difficulties abroad as a black man. In fact, Damon himself was even reluctant to book rooms on AirBnB at first, assuming they would get a better deal and less pushback if Todd, a white man, took the lead.

In fact, after a while Damon started making the accommodations arrangements himself, and indeed, he found no difference at all in the way they were treated.

And it is not that the fact he is black is ignored everywhere. In Southeast Asia, Damon said he was pointed at or stared at. “When they're pointing and doing that, it wasn't out of, like, rudeness or like, I didn't belong there. It was more like really in fascination and fascinated that I was there and that they really wanted to engage with you and even to the point where they actually sometimes wanted to even just touch my skin.”

Todd adds, “We became total celebrities with taking pictures with families and with kids. And once you start taking the picture with a certain family, then you have, like, other families, seven other people taking pictures, and like, oh, I want to get a picture.”

Damon and Todd have been together for over 20 years now, but could only get married when California passed a law allowing same sex marriage in 2005. They spoke of their difficulties before that, with little thinks most married couples take for granted; being able to get health insurance together through work, visitation rights in hospitals, consent in medical emergencies, and so on.

Todd and Damon tell several stories about how complete strangers have opened up their lives to them and invited them to parties or even into their own homes, something they say you generally never see happen back in the States.

Damon’s parting advice for those looking to travel outside of the US: “I would want to share with other people of color that are interested and maybe doing something different and traveling. Get out there and do it. Don't be afraid because it's so easy to get caught up in being afraid and wondering, will I be accepted? Will I not? I think that you will have one of the best experiences if you allow yourself to just go out there and see the world."

"I mean, we're six years into this crazy journey that we started, not knowing what we were going to do, and it has been an amazing journey. So whether you're Black, whether you're gay, whatever, they get out there and experience it and see the world because I guarantee that things will open up for you in a way that you would never have thought. And we have made more friends and more resources of meeting people all over the world and it's something that we would not trade in for nothing. The six years that we've been doing it, that has been the highlight of that. It's the amount of people that we have met that have been so kind and welcoming to us.”

Listen to the full podcast at https://www.buzzsprout.com/2086182 , or just search for “Bigger, Better World” on any podcast platform or app.

Jim Santos
Jim Santos Books
+1 865-283-0729
jimsantos@mac.com
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