Ben Rattray Created Change.org When His Brother Came Out As Gay

Social activist Ben Rattray appeared Monday night on The Daily Show to talk about the inspiration for creating Change.org, a website that promotes social change through online petitions.

When asked by Jon Stewart about the driving force behind the site's creation, Rattray explained that he owes it to his brother coming out as gay, and then feeling the need to make a difference to combat anti-gay bullying. Rattray explained to Stewart, "I was going to be an investment banker. That was the plan. My senior year at Stanford, I go back home and talk to one of my younger brothers, and he comes out as gay. What he says is, the most notable thing about the pain he experienced wasn't so much the people who were explicitly anti-gay, but it was the people who stood by and didn't do anything about it. Personally, I had been one of those people. So I felt ashamed, trying to figure out what to do, and I decided to dedicate myself to never staying silent again, and I started the site Change.org to basically empower people to say what they want about the issues the care about."

He later concluded the interview by saying, "Overall, the power of the people to make a difference right now with social media is far greater than ever before. If you identify an issue you care passionately about, you identify the right person who can make a difference, you have a greater chance of success than you possibly can imagine, and Change.org is one of the primary ways to do it."

Change.org recently became a household name within the LGBT community when Katy Butler created a petition to have the R rating removed from Bully. Her petition was signed by 523,475 people and successfully helped make the MPAA assign the film a PG-13 rating.

Watch the full Daily Show interview with Change.org founder Ben Rattray below.