In the opening scenes of the half-hour documentary Thomas Banks’ Quest for Love we see a young gay guy organising a hookup on dating ap Grindr. It’s all looking promising for a fun fling until the other man opens the door and quickly registers that Thomas is not what he was expecting.
Watching this scene play out is a bit uncomfortable – the quick excuses, the rudely shut door – but such rejections have been common for playwright, performer and disability advocate Thomas Banks, who lives with cerebral palsy. Challenging those snap judgments that other people make about him is part of why he was so keen to put his experiences on screen.