The below link takes you to the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PAJNntoRgA
Hey Rick Perry … you just woke up the Internet in the worst possible way.
Done.
Done.
Done.
Rick Perry, let’s make a couple of things clear. There’s a difference between a war on religion and forcing people into reciting things they don’t believe in. I’m 26 years old. My elementary years were, in fact, spent in a Catholic school, despite not being Catholic. We recited the Pledge of Allegiance every day - yes, even the “under God” part - because our parents were paying quite a few thousand dollars per year for us to attend a school that they knew was religion-oriented.
My parents aren’t Catholic. I grew up in an area and time where the education you’d receive from a public school was of somewhat iffy quality. My biological parents, married in front of the lord, split up when I was quite young due to my biological father’s alcoholism. That $200/month child support payment meant my mother would be able to send me somewhere to get a greater education, and she chose a religious institution because in my area, there were no secular private schools. So I sat in religion classes, dictated by a religion that I did not belong to, and I recited prayers and went to mass twice a week.
When I say “parents”, I want to make it very clear that in this instance I’m not referring to my mother and the alcoholic she divorced. You should know that I’m referring to my mother, who currently lives with another woman and helps raise her 13-year-old daughter, and my father, who is actually my stepfather and took on the burden of a 6-year-old little girl without once complaining about it. My father, who happens to be a homosexual.
I am so grateful that when I was young, no one told me that gay men and women were challenging my upbringing. You see, when I was about to start my senior year of high school, my father - raised in a religious household - finally summoned his courage and told my mother and I that he was gay. He was 46 years old. And you know who else is gay? His brother, who happens to be a member of the United States military, and has been since decades before he was allowed to admit around the watercooler that he thinks other gents are just swell.
I can’t support people like you being the President of the United States for a few reasons. One, that would officially make you my uncle’s boss, and I wouldn’t want any member of my family to have to work for someone who didn’t respect them just because of who they went home to at night.
Two? I’m in a long-term, committed relationship with someone I might spend the rest of my life with, who might happen to want children. It’s pretty far off, but we might have a family someday. And if someone like you becomes the President of the United States, a position I will raise my children to honor and respect, someday my son or daughter is going to come home from school, or catch a video you made on the internet, and they’re going to ask me what’s wrong with Grandpa and why the most powerful man in the country doesn’t like him.
Oh, and that 13-year-old little girl I mentioned earlier? Her mother, my mother, and my gay father are all pitching in to raise her together. The world’s hard out there and we could all use more friends. She doesn’t have a single heteronormative relationship in her nuclear family. And she is so smart. She is the kindest little girl. She is careful and considerate and polite and lovely, and I am so excited to see the adult she becomes. She’s amazing, even if she doesn’t pray in school every day.
I pay a considerable amount of money in taxes every year. I’m a contractor, so I physically write that check myself - I know how much money I’m spending to live in this country. I keep my mouth shut about that, because I believe very strongly in taxation. I know I get a lot of government services out of that money, so it’s not like I’m just giving it away. That money is used for a lot of things I don’t support, too, but I shut my mouth because I know this is the structure of the country I live in, I know my officials are elected by a majority to represent me, and I have to sit around and believe that they’re working in my best interests because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
But mark my words - I do not want all of that money I’ve worked so hard to earn to be remotely placed in the hands of a bigot, and certainly not the most powerful bigot in the country.
4,956 people liked your video. I’ve never had that many people like anything I’ve ever done. But I sincerely hope you’re noticing the 234,508 (and growing by the second) people that disliked your video. We’re not just being liberal for the heck of it. We’re not “attacking” your religion because we don’t have anything better to do that day. We’re trying to make a safe world for all of us. I don’t want people to be justified in their hate speech toward my father. I don’t want to have to tell my children what “faggot” means and explain to them why someone said bad things about Grandpa - or, for that matter, any of the many adopted “Uncles” they’ll have. (I do live in San Francisco - my kids will have an awful lot of uncles.)
It’s not about hurting your religion, it’s about protecting everyone’s. I’m not religious, myself, but if someone is Muslim or Jewish, they shouldn’t be required to hold your bible and recite your prayers and say Amen. I know it’s difficult to see a set of beliefs outside of your own, but how would you feel if your child came home and told you their teacher made them recite from the Torah? Or the Qur’an? Or any number of religious texts that don’t quite line up with your way of thinking? Wouldn’t be fair, right?
Mr. Perry, you’re under the impression that America is a Christian nation, and that’s where you’re wrong. You and your fellow conservatives get very angry when someone says that, and I know some idiot on Tumblr isn’t going to change your mind, either, but you have to understand that when you talk about this “great country of ours”, the things that make it great are freedom and diversity. The very fact that I’m able to sit at my home and write all these words out without fear of massive persecution is a product of all of the brave men and women who have fought valiantly for our freedom. It’s a product of my ancestors two generations ago having the freedom to come to this great country we share and start a new life. Would my father’s grandparents have come over from the old country if they knew their grandson was going to be attacked by strangers because of who he loves? It’s a question without an answer, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth discussing.
So, Mr. Perry, I’ve reported your video to YouTube as promoting hatred based on sexual orientation. I sincerely hope you see why. There’s disagreement, and there’s hate. You specifically singled out a protected group in that script your team wrote for you, and I don’t believe that’s fair. Friends, I would appreciate it if you would take the quick step of doing the same thing.
(Source: synecdoche, via steveagee)
