Matt Coles, director of the ACLU LGBT Project, talks to Joel Engardio about his life working in gay rights, coming out, surviving the AIDS crisis and fighting for LGBT equality. Matt's conversation is divided into three chapters, each four minutes long:

Matt and the staff at the ACLU's LGBT Project recently joined with a coalition to launch the "Tell 3" campaign, which encourages gays and lesbians to tell three people they're close to about what it's like to be gay. Straight people are also talking about their gay loved ones. The idea is that when enough people know and understand someone who is gay, they'll stop casting votes that discriminate against gay people. We hope Matt's episode of "ACLU Conversations" will help prompt the kind of personal conversations that will get us there.

Look for more conversations on a variety of issues in this new video series from the American Civil Liberties Union.