Hands shaking, he taps the start button his timer and sets it down. He has three minutes to make his case in defense of his family and families like his.

When Zach finished his three-minute address to the Iowa House of Representatives, the crowd erupted in cheers. The next day, someone posted a video of his speech on YouTube. Three days later, the video had been viewed more than a million times, quickly becoming a powerful prompt for national dialogue about LGBTQ+ rights. By the end of the year, it had become the most-watched political video on YouTube.

When the video went viral, Zach’s story—the Eagle Scout son of two lesbian moms who was advocating for nondiscrimination—spread rapidly. He was thrust into the limelight and appeared on national talk shows. Read more of Zach’s story in Living Proof: Telling Your Story to Make a Difference.