Back in February I posted Zach Wahls' speech to the Iowa legislature about his gay moms. No doubt most of you have seen it. What wasn't clear until recently was how many people hadn't.

Zach writes, for the first time since the video went viral again, in The Daily Beast:

In the immediate aftermath of the hearing, the video leapt to a million hits and thrust my family and me into the limelight for the first time. People were trying to figure out who was this kid from Iowa (Iowa?!?) and how two lesbians (Tall Mom and Short Mom) in the middle of the American heartland had managed to raise a normal family.

This past week, the video got a second wind after the site MoveOn.org decided to post it. The video has now managed to rack up more than 15 million hits in all.

Wahls also talks about his favorite reaction to the video, and the book he is at work on about his moms.

Upon the book's release in the spring of 2012, I'll be working with a number of nonprofit organizations to roll out an advocacy campaign with the hopes of finally erasing the stigma that some people still associate with two-mom or two-dad families and with the gay community in general. With your help, I think we'll be able to finally make this “issue” a nonissue, and I'll finally get to go back to studying engineering.

As crazy and awesome as this ride has been so far, I had decided to temporarily suspend my studies to focus on advocacy work because of a Facebook message I received back in February. At the guy's request, I'm withholding his name, but here it is, verbatim: “man, i just watched your video on youtube. being from the south, the deep south, I have been raised ‘anti-gay.' Pardon the slur. but that completely changed my view on the subject. Just amazing. Im leaving for the army in two weeks and was pretty upset about don't ask don't tell being repealed but again you changed my view on that. I just thought it would be nice for you to know you truley opened someones eyes. Thank you.”

His is certainly one of the best stories to come out of 2011.

Watch his speech again if you havent, AFTER THE JUMP…

Iowa Student Zach Wahls: Why I'm Defending My Two Moms [daily beast]