Gay Marriage Speech

Hey there!

Yea I know, not a single post in...what 8 months? My bad. Law school keeps me busy and I get thoughts, but rarely the time they deserve to write them out in any way that makes logical sense. SOOOO, I poached some material. With his permission of course. Below is a speech my brother gave in front of his Speech 101 class at GCC about marriage equality for homosexuals. Now many of you may have seen this already if you are friend's with Philip on Facebook. You should know that of the 22 people in his speech class, only 9 polled to be in favor of marriage equality before the speech was given. Needless to say, Philip was going in as the only gay man in front of a group of people that were already against his rights, so, yay courage. I call it giant brass balls, but same difference.

Anyway, enjoy what is reprinted below. If you are already pro-equality, share it with your friends. (Apparently it actually swayed a few people in Philip's class!) If you are NOT already pro-equality, read it and really think about it carefully. It really sums up the ACTUAL and PRACTICAL impact of your view. All starts with an open mind. Enjoy!

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[I don't normally post stuff like this. I'd stressed for days about this speech, and had actually considered not giving it and taking the twenty percent reduction in my grade. But, I gave it, and I think I actually persuaded a couple of people. :) Also, it's good for me to step out of my comfort zone. Obviously, this speech is tailored specifically to my Public Speaking 101 class at Glendale Community College.]

Who in this room identifies as heterosexual or straight? That's right, it should be all over you. [Everyone raises their hand] Who in this room identifies as gay? [I raise my hand, the only gay person in the room.] Who here can't legally get married? [Again solo, I raise my hand.] That's not a coincidence.

Today, I will be discussing with you the two concepts surrounding why gay marriage should be legal. What you may not realize is that as citizens you should be worried. Now that the California Supreme Court has upheld Prop 8, people's rights are now in the hands of the majority, out in the public forum. I've volunteered for almost a year now with a non-profit organization working to get marriage equality back in California. More importantly, I'm a gay man that you know. So, today, I'm going to focus on two things: one, the basic legal aspects surrounding gay marriage in California, and then, two, the deeper issue of what gay marriage means.

Firstly, last year the CA supreme court examined an older lawsuit involving interracial marriage. They came to the decision that it was wrong to discriminate against and deny people the legal definition of marriage because of what they inherently are, giving gay people the legal right to marry. Later, as you all know, in November a little over 50% of the CA population decided to remove this legally given right. After a court hearing, Prop 8 is still upheld. Legally, this is a horrible precedent to set. When has it ever been okay for a minority group to be singled out and have a their legal rights removed by the majority?

Also, very quickly I'd like to talk about domestic partnerships. They are not the same thing for a few reasons. CA marriage licenses are recognized everywhere. Domestic Partnerships are not. They don't really work for the simple reason that no one really knows what they are. Think about it, if they were the same thing, the CA Supreme Court would have had no reason to give gay people the right to marry. Most importantly, domestic partnerships don't have the same social recognition as marriage, and they imply a separation among citizens, suggesting that being gay is wrong. They are the definition of separate but equal. Who in this room is married? [two women raise their hands] Which of you at this very moment would trade your marriage license for a domestic partnership?

Now that you know the basic basic current legal issues surrounding gay marriage, I'd like to talk about it on a deeper level.

Besides me, how many of you know a gay person? [Everyone raises their hand.] At the end of the day, gay marriage is about something else. It's about understanding and perspective. It's personal.

As of last week, 40% of your believe gay people should have the right to get married. 50% of you believe in capital punishment. Do you have any idea, after spending the last seven weeks with you, laughing with you, caring about you, and sharing this class with you, what it felt like, how lonely it felt, to know that 10% more of you would rather see a person pay for their crime by being killed than see me legally commit to a human being who loves me in the same legal way all of you can?

It's not an issue; it's not an opinion; it's not an intellectual topic to be debated among you and your friends over dinner. It's my life. And it's the life of my family and the people around me. Last summer, my little brother, Alan, who I've lived with my whole life is one of my best friends, proposed to his high school sweetheart, Elena. They'll be getting married next August, and I have been asked to be the best man in their wedding. The day after last year's election, my little brother, who is in law school and who'll be a lawyer by the time he gets married, came to me and said, "Brother, there is no legal or logical reason why you should not be able to get married." Then he turned to me with tears in his eyes and said, "Since Elena said she'd marry me, all I've ever wanted was to be able to return the favor and be the best man in your legal wedding." Then he said, "And now, Philip, I can't because half of the people in the state we were born in, the state we call home, think your love is legally different from mine."

To finish up, now that I've made a legal argument and a personal appeal to you all, I just want to say that I don't want to get married in your church. No church would ever be forced to marry anyone it didn't want to. I don't want to teach you children about gay marriage. The Supreme Courts decision said nothing about schools. I promise I won't destroy the family unit. I don't want to lower the population. I just want you to see me, your classmate, Philip Harris, as someone who was singled out last November because of something I was born as. I just want to have the same legal definition of marriage that all of you in this room have. And so, I have two calls to action for you.

1. I dare you to look inside yourself and confront your inner homophobia. I don't care if you were raised religious. I don't care if you were raised a conservative. I don't care if you think that being gay is just plain gross. Look inside and really ask yourself how my being able to get married would honestly affect you. Cause, right now Proposition 8 only affects one person in this room. Me.

2. My rights are now back in the hands of the voters, that would be you, the majority. More than likely gay marriage will be back on the ballot in November of 2010. It's okay for you to change your mind. I ask all of you on behalf of every gay person in this country, on behalf of every gay person you're related to, on behalf of every gay person you know, on behalf of those two kids who killed themselves Alexandria mentioned in her speech, on behalf of my parents who as of next August will have seen three of their four children get married, on behalf of my little brother, and most importantly on behalf of me, who you know, whose jokes you've laughed at, please vote in favor of gay marriage. The next time you're filling out that absentee ballot or the next time you step into that booth, I promise you're going to see my face. Please, please don't single me out again.