A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 17

This is the third year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Today’s story: Burly rugby player has a stroke after freak gym accident… wakes up gay and becomes a hairdresser:

When 19-stone rugby player Chris Birch suffered a stroke during a freak training accident, his family feared it would be a life-changing injury.

Yet while his recovery certainly brought about a transformation, it seems to have been in a way no one could have expected.

For when he regained consciousness, the 26-year-old — who was engaged to his girlfriend — claimed he had become gay.

Mr Birch’s astonishing change saw him break up with his fiancée, ditch his job in a bank to retrain as a hairdresser and lose eight stone in weight.

He has now moved in with his 19-year-old boyfriend.

I seem to remember a pitch that sold, perhaps a script some time ago, about a guy who gets hit by a disco ball at a nightclub, knocked unconscious, then wakes up gay.

There was the movie In & Out starring Kevin Kline: “A midwestern teacher questions his sexuality after a former student makes a comment about him at the Academy Awards.”

Maybe a U.K. version of this would work even better, one of the wonderful quirky comedies like The Full Monty or Local Hero.

I suppose, too, you could reverse it: Gay guy becomes straight. Or gender bend it: Straight girl becomes a lesbian. Or vice versa.

What is it about sexual identity movies that are so interesting?

What would you do with this story idea?

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