Tuesday, November 11, 2008

This is about the human heart

Oh, Keith Olbermann. How I've both loved and loathed you this election season. I've loved you, as all liberals love you, for being our unrelenting champion against the O'Reallys of the world. But then I've also loathed you, as all Hillary supporters loathed you, for having blinders on to the inherent sexism of some of her critics. But now, well, now I'm just happy that when it comes to gay marriage you totally get it. Olbermann's Special Comment last night was, in a word, great. Watch and marvel.

Now that gives me hope. That's what we need to turn the tide on gay rights – straight folks caring as much as gay folks. Even if every gay person marches and protests and editorializes, it's simply not enough. Our community alone is not enough. We need them. Let's face it, there are a lot more of them than us. We need them to be as outraged as we are and, in a way, perhaps even more. For us this is deeply personal and reaches into the most private parts of our everyday lives. But for them there are no ramifications in their everyday lives save for the deep insult it gives to their sense of decency and fairness. So on this issue we need everyone – us and them – to turn to our friends and neighbors and family members who oppose gay marriage and ask, “What is this to you?” It all boils down, ultimately, to love. The love we hope to share with another person until death do us part, and the love we hope to share with every man and woman as fellow humans. What is this to you, and why would you ever not choose love when given the chance? Atta boy, Keith, atta boy.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a terrific and moving speech!
Thanks for linking us to it, Mrs Snarker.

I used to not care too much about the legal issues and rights for gay people. I mean, I am gay but I had the fortune to not once be confronted with prejudice and hate, so I just lived my life pretending that this doesn't affect me. But what rubbish is that!
Lately I find myself more and more motivated and activated to speak up. To stand up and speak for myself and for the group of people I belong to.

And when I hear a statement such as the one from Mr. Olbermann I am moved and more aware than ever that each and every one of us has to stand up and fight for our equality!

frannie said...

WOW....that was amazing.

Looking for my Lost Life said...

Thanks for posting the link. That was truly amazing! Especially as he says "I'm not gay, I had to strain to think of one member of even my very extended family who is, I have no personal stories of close friends or colleagues fighting the prejudice that still pervades their lives."

Anonymous said...

Wow... just WOW.

We need more straight people like him to support the gays. The faux "bisexuals" in Hollyweird are not doing us any favors.

Lezlie Mac said...

Wow. Indeed we need more straight people like him standing up for us. Very moving speech. Thanks for posting it.

Endless Waterfall said...

He made me cry at work! What a moving speech. I never understand this either: What difference does it make to straight people? Not like they are doing so well at marriage...


Shame nobody at Fox News has the guts to say this. They are more likely to reach the kind of audience that needs to hear this.

Megan said...

Thank you for sharing this clip - Olbermann certainly has conviction on the topics he cares about, and it's wonderful to know he cares about this topic, even though he has no skin in the game per se. I am grateful that he would speak on legal rights that don't affect him in the least.

I do want to know though, and this is the thing that upsets me the most, where was this speech before the election that took marriage rights away from gays? Where were all the visible signs that this mattered to the gay community as well as people that support equality for all people in this nation, not just in California? Where were the celebrity interjections of support and the protests? Was it complacency - an assumption that California would do the right thing and we didn't have to try so hard?

Maybe next time it would help if more people like Olbermann voiced their support for our legal rights prior to a vote.

Me. Here. Right now. said...

Thanks, Dorothy, for posting this. It's one of the best and most moving things I've seen...sniff.

J9 said...

I watched this last night, and my first thought was that I really haven't given Olberman a fair shake. I don't watch his show, and the only exposure I'd had was clips on The Soup, so I wasn't rushing to watch. Now I'll be setting my TiVo for 2 hours each night to catch both Keith and Rachel. This is fantastic. And while there are plenty of straight celebs fighting for glbt (think Judith Light), there are not so many currently in the limelight.

Thank-you Keith Olberman for voicing what we already knew - this is about Love. That this was masked under lots of other things like religion and lies, you get it and I hope others who watch the clip will too.

AmandaMLyons said...

was moved by this, my dad is very ant-gay and is the reason i have yet to come out to my family. I wish that he could listen to something like this and understand. It was a simple random act of luck that i am in a straight committed relationship. I have loved both sexes all my life! It's so wonderful to see a straight man get it! I reposted it on my myspace and as a bulletin. I hope that people get his message!

Anonymous said...

Stunning
I cried
I emailed it to everyone

It appealed to me as the highest that I can vision.
I wish it was in my heart, and I wish it was in the hearts of all:

"So I be written in the Book of Love
I do not care about that Book above
erase my name, or write it as you will,
So I be written in the Book of Love."

Omar Khayyam
(1021-1122/Iran)

THANK YOU!!

Amanda said...

Now that's a newscaster

Amanda

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing that video by Mr. Olbermann, DS. It reminded me of the poem by Martin Niemöller - because it sounds like Mr. Olbermann gets it.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

bisquiat said...

I am both proud and awed to add that last weekend I received an email from my guitar teacher--my guitar teacher!--asking me what he and his wife could do to help continue the No on 8 cause. He promised to help out in whatever way necessary, to march with his two small kids in anything from San Diego to Santa Barbara to help us get equal rights. I was moved to tears by the support of our straight friends, Keith among them, who care enough about us and the world to keep fighting when it would be easier not to. Thank you all.

Unknown said...

who'd have thought that when your President-elect was out on the stump saying 'yes we can', he only meant it for straight folks...?

the irony isn't lost on me (here in the UK) that it was sheer dumb luck, and not through any skill or reasoned debate on his part, that Barack Obama was born in one of the states that 'permitted' inter-racial marriage at that time of his birth. sixteen other states in the union would have prohibited his parents' marriage, which is an outrageous thought - so why isn't banning gay marriage considered equally outrageous?

there are no 'gay' or 'straight' rights; only human rights. i'm glad to see that there's a sense of outrage about it from many people (there's just been a news item on the BBC over here about the demonstrations in California). here's hoping that their voices are heard, the amendment is not permitted, and America - in all its wondrous diversity - can be celebrated.

Norma Desmond said...

I'm not a crying person, and that moved me to tears. That's exactly what I've been trying to figure out, why does it matter to straight people? Why is love wrong? And I have yet to come up with anything, ANYTHING that seems like it makes sense.

Thank you so much for sharing that video.

Anonymous said...

I love this man! I saw his Special Comment last night and hoped that today it would spread like wildfire across the internet and other news stations. I means a great deal to me that one of "them" cares that much to be outraged about issues that matter dearly to me. Thank you Keith for caring and sharing.

amaltheaz said...

I was at work when I saw this on AfterEllen, and I cried listening to his impassioned speech. I even blogged about it so that my friends and anybody else who happened to read it, would see that video too.

We can only hope that everybody else would understand too. We just want a chance to love, and love freely. That's all. Is that really asking a lot from them?
... I didn't think so.

Anonymous said...

I needed that. Thanks for posting.

Anonymous said...

I was very glad to see this posted all over the place today. I caught it last night and got a lump in my throat. It kind of sounded like Olbermann got one too, halfway through.

Sometimes he can be over the top, but last night's Comment is a keeper.

Lilea said...

Wow, this is really amamazing!!!

Anonymous said...

Before today i had barely heard of the guy. After seeing that, i would so do him. My heart goes out to everyone affected by prop 8.