Gore on Equality
Former Vice-President Al Gore was the keynote speaker at the Human Rights Campaign's Gala event on 25 March 2006 (apprarently in Los Angeles, CA). IN Los Angeles magazine excerpted parts of his speech, of which these are only a few paragraphs.
As I was on the way here, I reflected on why is there so much controversy about the question of equality for gays and lesbians. Why? This fight has been so long and so hard for something that is so simple and so right.
President Harry Truman once said in the White House, "I spend 95 percent of my time trying to persuade people to do what they ought to be doing in their own best interest anyway. And the Human Rights Campaign has the right to say the same thing. After all, for God's sake, you're asking for monogamy and military service. Is that too much to ask for? You're asking for the simple right to be who you are and to be free from intimidation and persecution and discrimination and injustice designed to make you hide from who you really are. You're asking to make your life alongside the person you fall in love with. You're asking for the right to have full and equal recognition for that relationship and to form a life-long bond. That's not too much to ask for. You're asking for the right to fight for our country and if necessary, to die for our country. That's not too much to ask. You're asking as Americans for individual dignity and that's not too much to ask. This cause, this vision of what is right and what is just seems controversial because it does trigger a vulnerability to those fears that are continually inspiring.
[A] future generation will look back and truly wonder how this could have happened [this controversy], just as we look back and wonder how some of the strange practices that embody such horrific injustice in ages past but never have been tolerated — they will look back at this period of time and feel puzzled and they will see and understand that the vision that has brought all of us here inspires a passionate devotion to justice and necessary change and the feeling of camaraderie among us all.
[first seen at Pam Spaulding, "Al Gore's evolution on gay marriage?", Pam's House Blend, 22 April 2006.]
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on Monday, 24 April 2006 at 19.52
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Gore exhibits two things I greatly admire. First, he's intellectually honest. Second, he's still adding to his knowledge and modifying his perceptions and attitudes — a dynamic personality, in other words.
That kind of person makes mistakes, to be sure, but they go on to learn from mistakes, sometimes even to admit to mistakes.
That's in sharp contrast to the kind of person who's static and stale, who has his head buried in sand at one end and his heels dug into the dirt at the other end.