How Do Blind People Discover Their Sexual Orientation?

In this video, I'm going to answer a question that's as old as the universe.

No, it's not. I'm just --- [laughs]

A question that comes up on YouTube quite often is

this one: "How does a blind person know their sexual preference?"

Right? Because you can't see, so you can't

see how pretty somebody is or what somebody looks like or any of that kind of thing.

So how do you know?

How the heck do you know? Answering this question, I can only give you

my own personal experience. I can't speak for anybody

else on this one. I'll just tell you how I knew.

What my preference was. And is.

[Ben laughs]

[Tommy laughs]

So growing up the things that I learned were all based on my

surroundings. So my parents were straight. All their

friends were straight. All the characters I saw on television

and movies were all straight too and that sort of helped to

steer me in a particular direction and the direction that I went. This may not

work for other people, but for me it was just the thing

that felt right to me. It was the thing that made sense. So that's the path

I chose. As I got to be a teenager and started talking to girls

then the experience got to be a little different.

Right? Hormones are starting to fly around and things and

starting to get those butterflies and starting to feel this sort of twinge

of, "Boy, I like her. She's cool."

And that's one of those experiences that I never got from my guy friends.

So in school for example, I can't look across the room and go, "Ooh, I like

her. I got to go talk to her." Or, "she's pretty"

or this kind of thing. No. For me, it's all about conversation.

Right? And if I talk to somebody and we start to click

and we feel the same way about certain things

or somebody just has a cool energy to them

or somebody's extremely funny, you know,

that's how I get to see whether or not I like somebody. And then I have to take the chance

and say, "Would you like to come

to the 8th grade dance with me?" And then we can stand

against the wall and never dance together.

ANNOUNCER: We interrupt this YouTube video for this special announcement.

TOMMY: Hey, I just wanted to let you know that we got some brand new merch available

for the next 7 days only. And this is our

"Blind Caution" sign series. Now when I was in high school

there was a big giant sign out front of my dorm that said, "Blind Child Area".

I always thought the white stick would have been enough but okay.

So we came up with our own "Blind Caution" signs for you as well.

And we put it on some T-shirts, hoodies, and stickers.

There's "Blind Drunk". In case the stagger isn't enough for people you can

just read the front of your shirt and know that your blind drunk.

There's "Blind Driver". People are always yelling at motorists on the road and stuff.

"Hey, look at my shirt." Or my personal favorite...

"Blind Not Buzzed" because this has happened to me many, many times.

I'll sit down at a bar and somebody will say, "I think you've had a little too much

already, sir." "No, no, no. Look, I'm blind not buzzed."

So if any of those interest you, or you'd like to get some of the classic stuff...

The Blind Film Critic or The Tommy Edison Experience stuff,

the link is right there in the description for the video. And remember, it's only

available for the next 7 days.

ANNOUNCER: We now return to this YouTube video already in progress.

TOMMY: One of the things I really enjoy is the like the smell and the sounds of

a woman. Like all the fragrance, right. The perfume and stuff.

It's just lovely. It's so nice.

And of course some are better than others and

some people wear a little bit more than they should,

but it's all part of the experience. The sounds of a woman. Like the

sound a woman's shoes make on the floor sometimes.

Like on a cement floor or in an office building.

Oh, it's a great sound. I just love it. Plus,

girls and women just have different stuff than guys do.

And that was attractive too. And these are some of the things that helped

me figure out what my preference was. That's just what

I was drawn to. I just like girls and women.

I love what they had to say. I like listening

to them talk. I like hearing their stories. It's no more complicated

than that. So that's really about it.

That's my story and that is how I knew.

Now I'm sure there are other things that I'm totally not aware of

and things that are going through other people's heads that I don't know but

it's just such a difficult question to answer.

It really is. But I will say this. I don't think sight

plays into it. I really don't.

Without sight I was able to determine what I liked, who I liked,

and honestly I don't believe sight played into this.

I really don

I really don't. I simply liked

who I liked.

Well, thank you so much for watching the video. I hope you enjoyed it.

I'd also love for you to follow me on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter ---

That's just another way to find out every time we put

up a brand new video for you.

BEN: Because YouTube certainly wasn't.

TOMMY: YouTube ain't doing it. They dropped the ball.

In fact, they dropped both balls.