Friday, December 4, 2009

A Stand Up Gal



We desperately need gay celebrities to stand up and matter of factly set the record straight on issues involving gay rights. Yet, so many Hollywood entertainers are either in the closet, or so busy pandering to straight audiences that its encouraging when one just comes out and tells it like it is. Today that stand up gal was Portia De Rossi and she got nothing but heartfelt applause from me.

First they try to tackle what they must have believed was a sensitive subject,...coming out. But, instead of shrink from the question or do a little two step around it, she tackled it head on, with no apologies, and like it was the most normal thing in the world to be gay...good for you girl. Thanks for bring a smile to my face today.

She took the high road when Elizabeth asked about Meredith Baxter Burney's coming out and her take on that. Instead of offering her own opinions or venting her spleen as some of us are wont to do (*ahem* guilty as charged), She instead related it back to her own experience, which was a classy way to redirect the dialogue.

It was also interesting that they make the claim that the reason Portia is successful in a straight role is that men are always willing to believe that women will switch for the right man....really? So, Neil Patrick Harris is also gay and playing a straight role with a good deal of success, but does that mean that his female viewers believe they can turn him from the gay side?...I don't think so...at least not in the majority. Also, Harris is on every single industry awards show from the Oscars to the Golden Globes, how much gayer can you get? Most of the people watching these shows are more likely so caught up in the story that they don't give any thought to the sexuality of the actors in it. At least, until the gossip tabloid shows that come on right after. Both of these individuals are good actors and like all good actors, should be judged on how much you enjoyed watching them.

But now the section of the program that made me stand up and cheer like the rebels blowing up the Death Star. All emphasis on certain text added by me.

Whoopie Goldberg: Proposition 8...is that gonna change your legal standing as a married couple?

Rossi: No...It doesn't change the legality of our marriage. Our marriage still holds but...

Bahar: You were grandfathered in?

Rossi: yeah...but see this is whats so horrible about it. Ellen and I were wanting to have a commitment, we were ready for that kind of life. But, for many people out there, many gay people who have always wanted to be married...unless they were with their perfect lifetime partner within those few months that it was legal, they don't have the option to be married anymore....and that's whats so horrible about proposition 8 passing is that it just takes away the people's right to have what, you know...everybody in this country should have BECAUSE ITS REALLY NOT A RELIGIOUS ISSUE OR A MORAL ISSUE, ITS JUST SIMPLY A CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE AND THE FACT THAT THE MAJORITY CAN GET TO VOTE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE MINORITY SEEMS VERY....UNAMERICAN TO ME. ITS JUST DOESN'T SEEM LIKE WHAT THAT COUNTRY IS ALL ABOUT.

Bahar: Do you think that the gay community...I'm not saying that you represent them....but do you think that if they took the word "marriage" out and made it....equal, everything...and the same exact rights, that the gay community would still want it to be marriage?

Hasslebeck: For instance, like o.k.....just as an example of that ( tangentively ?). Men and Women...Women want all the rights of men, but their not asking to be called men. Do you think...maybe Joy's right...maybe it is the ....is it the word? or is that word more important than the rights?

Rossi: No, of course the word isn't more important than the rights...BUT... WITHOUT THE WORD WE DON'T HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS, because everybody is allowed to be married....um, you know...every citizen of this country should have that right, that legal right to be married and marriage...I think...actually...the word actually does mean something because...you know, because people who see a gay coupling as like a lesser...a lesser thing in society, it can continue to be lesser than marriage...when really its the exact same thing...exact same love, exact same commitment, um, and love of family,



(*STANDING OVATION!!!*)....YAAAAYYYY!!!!....Well...that didn't really happen, but it should have.

Finally!....someone willing to put their ass on the line. She didn't have to dedicate a whole show to it, or hold a benefit concert...she just had to tell it like it is, not hide behind the excuse of being an entertainer and not an activist. This is activism in its truest form...just having the courage to tell the simple truth....that's why Portia De Rossi just became the silver lining in my cloud today....way to stand up and show em how its done girl...

8 comments:

  1. i watched thed intervioew this afternnon, deam i like this woman since her lawyers days back in that series-wich-nace-Ican´t-recall (it´s 2:30 pm here i´m so tired)

    plus arrested development, and now this, i ahve to say I really dig this woman, she showed no... nothing she just speaked truth with no political agenda but the truth.

    Ok I´m reapeating my self, going to sleep. cyas

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  2. I agree! Well said, Bryan. I love Portia.

    -talentguynyc

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  3. Thank you, Bryan, for this post!
    It was really great to watch, I couldn't believe my eyes and ears! She said everything we've been saying for a long time:
    1) Being gay is OK.
    2) Same-sex marriage is a civil rights issue.
    3) We want to have THE marriage and we're entitled to it.
    4) The majority should not vote on rights of any minority.
    5) Without the word "marriage" our unions feel like less of a family in the eyes of society.
    6) No marriage equality means no equality at all.

    If a gay union means exactly the same and has exactly same legal & societal consequences, why should it be called anything else but marriage?

    P.S. I guess, Hasslebeck said "tangibly", not "tangentively".
    P.P.S. I suggest to add blockquote code where you transcribe the show.

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  4. I have to say I have always thought you were a little (not a lot) harsh on on Ellen and Portia. They have done alot for gay rights with the Ellen show.

    Things like going on Oprah and being interviewed as a couple make a difference I think.

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  5. @K!r!lleXXI

    Sorry about that...I put this post together in hurry in between going to holiday events at the kids schools. I thought I had added the blockquote but I guess I missed it.

    @orangegoblin82

    We didn't mean to be harsh or judging but you have to admit that much of Hollywood does there best not to piss off thier straight fan base.
    For us...the frustration came from desperation at watching the clock count down to election time and NO ONE was saying jack sh*t about Prop 8......Finally, Samual L. Jackson did a voice over for a "anti-prop 8" commercial and then Ellen did a small commercial...but that was all there was and it was at the tale end of the campaign when It was a day late and a dollar short.
    perhaps we judged to harshly....but the memory of those days are still with us. Maybe they are with Ellen and Portia too and thats why they are now speaking out. maybe it took that stinging defeat to wake people up and realize that we cant be silent any longer.

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  6. @swampex

    I believe your thinking of Allie McBeal

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  7. @Bryan, yeah I actually wake up thinking about the show.

    I just had weird moment a few minutes ago, there a lot of people in my house ( my cousing birthday party was here and a lot of my uncle´s friends came)and they started to being bigots about the gay marriage-that wasn´t, and being closeted to my uncles i stayed put, quiet and after a minute i went away because they so ignorants i wanted to hit them or just explain tot hem why they were wrong.

    Now i feel like crap for not doing anything

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  8. @SmAmPeX
    You have no idea how much I understand you!
    Last week my uncle visited us, he wanted me to print out something for him, and, as always, we ended up talking about something that, of course, lead to religious issues (he became very religious in the last several years), and he mentioned that our Orthodox Church is in bad shape because of new leader who, supposedly, puts gay priests to run local churches, and those "damn gays" fornicate in churches, and that gays go to churches because they have no other place to go. And I had to listen to him ranting about that and almost nodding in reply, trying to control myself from telling him what I thing about his faith and everything else.
    Well, someday, someday I won't have to deal with people like that anymore... and this though lets me stay focused on task at hand to get me there, to that "someday."

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