You’ve honoured me this evening to a degree I feel I don’t yet deserve. When I read about the work of my fellow honourees, I felt humbled and certain that among us, I am the one with much to prove. I believe I’ve received this award not so much because of what I’ve done, but because of the way I was born and raised. I was born the younger sister of a gay man, my older brother Mike, and the daughter of parents who were both empathetic to and loving of the LGBT community. In my household, being gay was and is - no big deal. When my brother came out we hugged him, said we loved him, and that was that. When he brought home his first boyfriend …when he brought his first boyfriend, now husband home for a couple of weeks one Christmas, my father’s only comment to my mother was: “Please, try not to mix up our underwear.” We had no idea that I would become recognizable because of my work and that we would become publicly labeled as having an “alternative family lifestyle”. Just for the record, we don’t feel that there is actually anything alternative about our family values. So for semantic reasons only, it’s with some hesitation that I accept the HRCLI award. I don’t consider myself just an ally to the LGBT community, I consider myself your family; and so, I’m doing, what we should all do, with our families. I’m loving you, I support you, I completely accept you as you are as I hope you do me, and if anyone, ever, tries to hurt you - I’m gonna give them hell! …There are people who’ve said that I’m being brave for being openly supportive of gay marriage, gay adoption ..basically of gay rights, but with all due respect, I humbly dissent. I’m not being brave, I’m being a decent human being, and I don’t think I should receive an award for that, or for merely stating what I believe to be true; that love, is a human experience, not a political statement, however, I acknowledge that sadly we live in a world where not everybody feels the same. My family and I will help the good fight continue until that long awaited moment arrives. When our rights are equal, and when the political limits on love have been smashed. This award does not represent in anyway the pinnacle of my relationship with the LGBT community, rather, it is a triumphant roar to announce that we are just beginning our fight together. In closing, to paraphrase Enis Del Mar, who was unforgettably embodied by the late, the great, Heath Ledger: I swear HRC, I swear. I have not yet done enough to deserve this award, but don’t worry, the best is yet to come.I loved her before, but this totally enhances that by a billion. This woman is amazing!! Sitting here crying right now after sitting through this speech to write it down for all of you guys. Incredible!
Listen to Anne’s speech here (or here if the first link stops working), and please be sure to reblog and place a white ribbon (for marriage equality) on your blogs, please. :-) Let’s spread this around!
Because everyone should have the right to tie the knot!
Click here for the embed code (or here)
Please show your support for marriage equality and put a ‘White Knot’ somewhere on your Tumblr page.
Reblog and pass this on to as many as you can. :-) and be sure to visit WhiteKnot.ORG for more information on the White Knot Campaign.
Valentine’s Day Fact #13
Today, NowYouKno is posting 14 Love, Dating, and Relationship facts in honor of Valentine’s day! See more here.
Once you love someone, do you always love them?
No because people change and grow up. Eventually, the person you loved in high school will no longer be the person you once dated and you will be a different person as well. As we change, our taste in people change.
Change to me seems like a strong word. This isn’t Fight Club here: “If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, would you wake up as a different person?” People don’t necessarily change. We all grow, mature, adapt, and altar habits but the closest thing to “change” I think you can get is if you go into combat and come back from the military.
Even if, lets say, Billy went to high school and was a complete douche-like, juicehead dating Sally and they fell in love. They went steady for a year or so (exchanging the “L” word), and broke up afterwards. Billy is now the executive manager of a big chain of spendy hotels. High school reunion rolls around and Billy sees Sally for the first time since then. Old times start coming back as they reminisce and they still see each other as the lovebirds they were before but in nicer clothing.
So yes, in my opinion, if it is a true love (not a soul mate, not lust, etc.) the two people involved will always have a little part of them that will always love the other.
Evolutionary Theory:
We fall in love with people that we want our offspring to be like or look like.
Little view on love
The formal definition of “love” is: “profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person”. Clearly the dictionary I found is wrong because “love” is one of the most common words I hear today. Today’s definition should go like this: a verb meaning to want or to have any feeling for that includes desire; including lust and materialism.
There is nothing profound with love anymore. When my friend told me she loved me, I had to question our friendship. Did I mean just as much to her as cheese; her favorite food? It is okay, I’m not bothered by it in any sort of way. I was just curious if she had to save one over the other from getting ran over by a car, would she grab the cheese that has the delicious taste in every bite? Or would I be the one who is saved, really having nothing to offer but friendship that isn’t tangible? I understand if she would go for the cheese; if she tried to eat my arm, I’m pretty sure society would frown on her, call her a cannibal, and there would be all sorts of drama. I am willing to give my life away so that she can save her cheese and not be called a cannibal.
Another first-hand example of modern day love is teenage love. I used to think it’s nonexistent but my little sister has proved me wrong…over and over again. She has been in love with more guys than I have had a crush on. My advice to her consisted of forgetting guys for a while and staying single; figure out her own ideals and personal wants in life. Now, I should be asking her for advice because she says that it’s a sad thing that I have only had one boyfriend; I need to go get a new boyfriend so I can be happy. All this time, I kept telling myself and others, “I am completely happy being single!” I was wrong though. Darn me for thinking otherwise. The only way for a teenager to be happy is to fall in love continuously with guys that I date for about a month or so at a time.
Times have changed now, greatly. In the novel Jane Eyre, Jane falls in love with Mr. Rochester before they’ve even kissed. That was social centuries ago though. In the latest decades, people can “make love” whenever they want. It happens so easily too. Certain old-fashioned people still believe in waiting for “the right person”, anything before that “right person” is considered lust. Apparently no one has told them that waiting is outdated and lust is no longer part of our vocabulary. “Lust” is now the new “n-word”. When affiliating someone with the word “lust”, it makes that person a tramp, player, slut, wanton, and other names that are considered inappropriate. It makes me sick to my stomach that if I were to conform to the idea of “love making” at a young age, I would be called a whore.
I promise you, reader, that when I say I love to watch TV while I’m making love with the eighteenth guy I have fallen in love with in the past year, I am only going along with what society has taught me is okay. I love that I can finally act out without being judged.
Another bonus is that if I ever have a baby from all the crazy love making, I will have even more love and support because I will be a teenage mother. All through the 1900’s, if a teenage woman was pregnant, it was frowned upon. People would say things like “aw, that’s too bad; she had her whole life ahead of her”. If I were to have a baby now, peers would say things like “aw, you baby is so cute; I love both you and your baby, give us a call if you need help with your future”. I could have my entire life handed to me, be famous like those girls off of “16 and Pregnant” and get even more love from America.
There is nothing profound in love. Someone who argues different is full of fiction and false hope gathered from literature. Love does not have to be shared between two people; love can be spread from my family, to an Ikea design I found online, to the guy in Psychology class that I don’t really talk to a lot. In fact reader, you’ve spent so much time just reading about how society has impacted me, I love you too.
