I Didn't Say It ...

Matthew Breen, editor-in-chief of The Advocate, accepting his Trailblazer Honor and speaking on Orlando: 

“I’ve got something to say to those who would do us harm; to those rightwing politicians and religious fanatics [The Advocate] too often covers: You cannot relentlessly discriminate against us and dehumanize us and then stand back and act shocked when someone takes your ideas into his black rotted heart and slaughters us in those places where we gather for community. We are not interested in your prayers unless they are followed up with action. And we do not accept that living in this country means lining up for a massive game of Russian roulette. There is no justification on earth for giving madmen access to mass murder machines. So listen up you Mitch McConnell’s, Pat McCrery’s, Wayne, LaPierre’s, Family Research Council, and all you bigots who methodically work to keep us down and keep the madmen armed, ‘You have f**ked with the wrong group of people.’ In case you have not been paying attention these last fifty years, this community is strong, resilient, very effective and mightily pissed off. We will not permit your insane brand of fundamentalism and we’re coming for your assault rifles, too.”

Words have meaning; words have consequences.

Sticks and stones; words hurt sometimes worse than sticks and stones.

They hurt like bullets.

[photo]

Bob the Drag Queen, on [t]Rump]s popularity:

"Trump is racist, and the reason why he's popular right now is because he lets a lot of people act racist without saying the word racist. He's a racist, and his supporters are racist, and they get to be racist without saying they're racist. I said racist, right? … RA-CIST. … Racist. … Racist."

No matter how he spins it, Donald The Rump is a racist.

We don’t need more hate in this country.

[photo]

Pope Francis, on the Church and The Gays:

“I think that the Church not only should apologize … to a gay person whom it offended but it must also apologize to the poor as well, to the women who have been exploited, to children who have been exploited by (being forced to) work. It must apologize for having blessed so many weapons. The Church teaches that homosexual tendencies are not sinful but homosexual acts are, and that homosexuals should try to be chaste. The question is: if a person who has that condition, who has good will, and who looks for God, who are we to judge?”

Oh, Pope Frankie got all kinds of Gay Praise for that first sentence, but read on: “homosexual tendencies” aren’t bad, but “homosexual acts” are; he wants us to be gay but not act gay, not love, not marry, not raise children.

He can go screw himself.

[photo]

Harvey Fierstein, accepting his Trailblazer Honor and speaking on Orlando: 

“These last two weeks have been very hard for all of us, especially for gay people who, as soon as we heard the news, we knew, we knew who took out that gun and shot; we knew it wasn’t something to do with Islam, we knew it was Hate, but hate turned inward, hate so strong, hate that destroyed so completely that his soul was gone … completely gone. And all he could was cry out; and then, instead of knowing there was someone he could cry out to, to say, ‘Help me! Help me be myself! Tell me I’m all right,’ he took a gun to prove he was a man and destroyed hundreds of lives. It wasn’t just those forty-nine people … it was all of their friends’, all of their families’ lives destroyed because someone told him he could not be him. We live our lives and they are short, little, silly lives, they really are, they go so fast, and history’s being made in every moment. Open your eyes; you are part of history, every moment. You either participate, or you don’t that’s your choice, but you’re part of history. All you need to do is show up. And don’t lie. I’ve seen people go to gay marches because they were angry; I’ve seen people go to gay marches because they were proud; I’ve seen people go to gay marches to get laid. It doesn’t matter. Show up.  Show up. Now you are surrounded with love, now you are surrounded with acceptance. So take advantage of it Put your arms around each other, tell each other, ‘I have your back no matter what.’ Show up. Show up for life. Make history.”

As that other Harvey, Harvey Milk, said, so many many years ago: we all need to come out, and come out to everyone, all the time, every day.

The more we are out, the stronger we are, and the less afraid people will be of us, and of themselves, so that maybe, maybe, we’ll have less people murdered because they’re gay by a murderer who was to ashamed to be gay.

[photo]