I Didn't Say It ....

Dan Savage, on America’s changing position on marriage equality:

"I tell this story in the book of being at this park in Seattle many years ago, where a limo pulls up and a bride and a groom tumble out to get their portraits at this very famous park with a beautiful view of downtown Seattle. And as they're walking back to the limo everyone starts to applaud, and rightly so. Everyone takes delight when two people find each other and make that commitment. I was standing there clapping next to these two older gentlemen with two big dogs. It was clear that they were gay and I was gay. And as they get into their car, the one closest to me looks at me and says, `We are always happy for them. Would it kill them to be happy for us?' We've reached that tipping point, where they are happy for us. Now you see straight people looking at gay people and recognizing something about themselves in us."

It should be that simple.

We should be happy for anyone who finds love.

Marcel Neergard, an 11-year-old gay student from Tennessee is speaking out against his state's 'Don't Say Gay' bill, and one of its proponents, Representative John Ragan:

"You have parents who don't want to talk about gays and don’t want to teach their children about gays, then they don't know anything about it and they don't get the education about what being gay is. During my first year in middle school, I experienced severe bullying. I was called terrible names that were quite hurtful. At that time, I had just realized that I'm gay, and the bullies used the word "gay" as an insult. This made me feel like being gay was horrible, but my parents told me otherwise. Their support was tremendous. But as powerful as their love was, it couldn't fight off all the bullying. I don't want anyone else to feel the way I did. No one deserves that much pain, no matter who they are. This was my reason for writing the petition."

Silence = Death.

And do we really need more young gay kids dying because some wingnuts don’t wanna hear about The Gays?

Go HERE to sign Marcel’s petition.

Andrew Luck, Indianapolis Colts quarterback, on the idea of an NFL payer coming out as gay:

“I mean, it's the 21 century. I know I would have absolutely no problem with it. I hope no one would treat him any differently than any straight player, and no special treatment. He's another guy...It's none of our business, the sexual preference of people. I hope if someone's thinking about (coming out), that if they do come out as gay and are a professional football player, and it makes them happy and it makes their life easier, then I think they should do it....When it does, if it does come, I'd be disappointed if there was a negative reaction among players."

Just another step in the right direction, though I have one quibble with Luck’s statement: it is not a sexual ‘preference’ because preference implies there is a choice, like when offered Italian or Chinese food for dinner, I would prefer Chinese.

It’s an orientation, because if it’s a preference then being straight is a preference, er, choice, too.

Kristin Beck, a former Navy SEAL and Transgender woman, on transgenderism:

"I do not believe a soul has a gender, but my new path is making my soul complete and happy. I hope my journey sheds some light on the human experience and most importantly helps heal the 'socio-religious dogma' of a purely binary gender."

As my parents instilled in all their children from an early age, ‘All you really get in life is happiness, so strive for that.’

Glad that Kristin is happy now.

Macklemore, rap artist and singer, calling for the government to support gay families:

“All families deserve respect. All parents deserve support whether they're gay or straight. I want a government that doesn't discriminate, a government that doesn't try to use religion to define what makes us a family. And that's why I am one of the voices united for the separation of church and state.”

I think being a parent is one of the hardest jobs a person could have, and why should we treat same-sex parents any differently that opposite-sex parents, or single parents.

A parent is a parent is a parent. Equally.

Liz Barker, Baroness in England's House of Lords, coming out as lesbian while coming out in support of marriage equality:

"Many years ago, I had the great good fortune to meet someone. She and I have loved each other ever since ... What we are doing today does not undermine any existing or future marriage. It extends the status of marriage to gay men and lesbians who want to make a public commitment in the presence of their families and friends, and sometimes their co-religionists. It reflects the wishes of those people who today do not want just to tolerate lesbians and gay men; they want to celebrate and support them as people in their own right.”

As I have been saying, show me the ‘traditional’ marriage that has been destroyed because of marriage equality and maybe then we can have a discussion.

Kevin Beckner, openly gay Hillsborough County [Florida] Commissioner, holding up a copy of the Constitution , and speaking to those who had originally put in place a ban on recognizing Gay pride by the county—the commissioners voted this week to repeal the ban:

"What does it say to a community when its own government sanctions discrimination against a class of its citizens? Does it give authority to others to discriminate against their fellow human beings? What about our children? Our children who go to school every single day that are subject to bullying simply because who they are as human beings. Does it give children the authority to bully and to put down their fellow classmates because government has said it's ok to do so? Ladies and gentleman, that is the real cost that this policy has to this community." 

Like I said yesterday, discrimination of any kind has no place here.

Good for the Hillsborough County Commissioners to put a stop to legalized discrimination.

Harvey Fierstein, on anti-LGBT religious bigots:
"Can you imagine if I was on a school board and I came in and I said, 'you know, I don't want any Jews or Christians teaching my kids, because they believe in people living inside whales, and they believe in slavery, and stoning women who have had an affair, so I just don't want any of those Christians or Jews'. Can you imagine? But they feel just absolutely free to say that about gay people."

If discrimination is wrong, all discrimination is wrong.
Well said, Harvey,