"When I was 13 years old, my beautiful mother and my father moved me from a conservative Mormon home in San Antonio, Texas to California and I heard the story of Harvey Milk. And it gave me hope. It gave me the hope to live my life, it gave me the hope to one day live my life openly as who I am and that maybe even I could fall in love and one day get married." -- Dustin Lance Black, accepting an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, February 22, 2009
Movies are not just entertainment. They are constant reminders of our humanity. There are good and bad movies. But when a film transcend its entertainment value it becomes part of our collective consciousness. I am not asking people to understand the whole issue of being gay. I am asking people to acknowledge the fact that there is diversity in humanity. And this diversity should be respected and protected because it is a fundamental issue. Throughout my life I have known personally scores of individuals that have been put in the streets by their families because they were gay. Worst of all, they have been thrown out of their homes because their parents thought they were an abomination. I do not blame the parents completely. Since childhood I have heard horrific false stories involving "homosexuals", promiscuity and crime. Fear is so powerful it can make a human being kill another without any apparent reason but plain panic. I have also known a couple of persons that had attempted suicide on account of them been gay. Luckily they failed. It is a human rights issue. Even though a great deal of progress has been made we still have a long way to go. Education is the key. We must be courageous enough to defend the rights of others to be different from us. We do not need to be all same. There is beauty in diversity. Go to a garden and see the wonderful differences between flowers. It is all about Love and freedom. Love is transformation. When you Love you transform your world and yourself. Many people are scared to Love abundantly and freely.
Many people get tired or feel peeved when gay activists demand equal rights and equality in marriage publicly. Wouldn't you do the same if there were laws in your country that forbid you to commit legally to the one you Love and to hide in fear of being fired from your job because you were "different"from the rest? Of course you would take to the streets. I am grateful that we are living in a world that is, slowly but surely, advancing the cause of equality. I remember having to hide with my friends inside a car before we got inside a club for fear we would be attacked by hatemongers in the streets. It is an urgent issue that will not just go away. It is Love what we are talking about in here. It won't go away. It will return time and time again. You cannot deny its absolute power. We are creatures of Love.
I hope that people from around the world saw Sean Penn and Dustin Lance Black accept their Oscars for Milk and thought to themselves Why are there people that wish Love be limited to their own definition of it? Why are there people that think Love should be contained, caged in like a dangerous wild animal? I hope they change their minds because there is only one Earth and one Humanity. We share this gift. We must honor it by allowing freedom to Love whomever you choose. It is essential for our survival as species.
Thank you for your kind attention on this matter.
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16 comments:
Something that comes to mind is something I read years ago. It said that in 'Heaven' (for want of better terminology), souls are neither male or female, but both at the same time. I am tired, sorry and inarticulate this morning. This meant that love encapsulated all souls. When we were born onto the earth plane, we had to choose a gender to work with in this lifetime. Maybe, some souls are so highly evolved that they 'forgot' and the true force of Universal love just is. Not male,not female just 'is'. This being the case, then any soul loving any soul is just perfect.♥♥
Natalie- Love is perfect indeed!
I was so glad to hear Sean Penn speak and I wished he could have said more and been more direct. I think having Milk win Best Picture would have been even more of a statement but I'm sure that politics prevented that from happening.
My sadness comes from the fact that the people that fight love in any form except for what their Bible tells them, will never want to listen because they are too scared to be wrong. If they are wrong, then their god is wrong too.
Watching and waiting to see what the California Supreme Court rules will tell us all how far we've come. I hope we have happy news sometime this year.
Your post is loving and lovely. Thank you for saying what is real and true.
tangobaby- I could not possibly tell anyone what to believe in and what not to believe. But I hope we all explore our capacity for discernment and intelligent analysis of facts. I hope people never find their religion be an obstacle to Love and acceptance. I fully agree with you on this mater.
Oh, It was all I could do to not stand up and clap at my TV. Instead both my arms shot up and I said "Yes!" my eyes brimming with tears. The screenwriters speech was one of the absolute best I've ever heard. More power to him for that message being broadcast all around the WORLD! And even if Sean forgot to thank his tearful, proud wife, his words seconded the message that needed to be seconded, unfortunately.
It's just plain wrong that this is even an issue. Thank you for another of your beautiful posts. Beautiful as you clearly are, dear man.
Yes, Pink Cowboy, it is time for people to accept love...I consider it not only unkind but cruel to socially constrain/restrain same sex couples who want to love, be married, and celebrate their relationship in public together. I agree that these movies bring understanding and acceptance...and people become familiar with what they thought was strange by enjoying a movie like "Milk". I hope that all of society comes to an understanding what love really is...unconditional.
I was fortunate in that I was raised (in the 50s no less) in a family of jazz musicians with a number of gay and lesbian friends. It was Hollywood after all!
My Uncle Wes (not actually a relative, but a beautiful gay man whom my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles accepted into the family) babysat me, tended me when I had Rubella, and was the first person I went to when I was ready to come out.
I'm closing in on 60. I've been "married" to a woman for nearly 10 years (we were united in a Holy Union service in a local Presbyterian "more light" church). We've raised her children, we pay bills, we live in the reddist state in the Bible Belt, while, during the past 10 years her ex-husband, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, has married and divorced three times. (And they say that WE are destroying the sanctity of marriage...) I've had bottles thrown at me, I've been called everything from a debaucher to a pedophile, and I've been beaten and raped.
If we have ever been faced with an opportunity to embrace human rights, it's now. If we don't, it may very well get swept under the carpet and we will be set back by decades.
Thank you for this post, PC. Bless you!
this is a beautiful, thought provoking post and i thank you for it- my kids where always told that love had no definative shape, form or structure, it just is love and must be taken as it is presented.
Thank you again for sharing your feelings.
Lisa x
a most ~Beautiful~ and Eloquent post ~Thankyou~ xox and i love Natalie's response X:-)
I wholeheartedly concure with everyone here, Mr. Cowboy. Thank you. x
Nice post, Education is everything for the "building of character of someone".
Thank you so much for your very supporting comments. I am definitely surrounded my wonderlful open minded people. ;-)
Here! Here!
Perhaps love, perhaps truth. The issues of acceptance and rejection seem to be part of the American gauntlet.
Being different is unsettling to many ... it's important to realize the country was first settled by narrow minded religious zealots - who were, more or less tossed out of England. So much of our current paranoia, hate and distrust comes down through the centuries as it if was a continuous glacier.
In my lifetime, I've witnessed a transformation of sexual mores and values. While I personally don't think it is necessary to define a person by their sexual orientation, apparently it is important to our society.
What I look for is the soul of a person - the essence, the qualities that radiate. Is a person doing good stuff? Making contributions? Advancing the well being of themselves and the society?
But it also seems necessary to make personal stances. I am me - that sort of thing.
I cannot predict the future but, if we look at the past 50 years, we really have come a long way - not far enough - but still better than the ignorance and brutality of our historic ancestors.
Well said Bill Stankus
Amen.
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