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发帖数: 4174 | 1 Posted on Advocate.com October 10, 2010
Ricky Martin Surprises HRC Dinner
By Advocate.com Editors
Singer Ricky Martin was the surprise opening guest at the black-tie Human
Rights Campaign National Dinner in Washington, D.C., Saturday night. As
guests were taking their seats, Martin took the stage to welcome them—and
to thank them for welcoming him.
“This is very simple,” he said. “It took me a while, but tonight I’m
here and I want to say that I want to add my voice to yours. And I’m so
happy to be part of this community.”
The night’s keynote speaker was Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to
President Obama, who focused her remarks on the recent suicides among LGBT
youth.
“No young person should have to endure a life of relentless taunts and
harassment, just because they’re gay,” she said. “On behalf of President
Obama, I want to make clear this administration is firmly committed to
working with you and other advocates.”
Jarrett highlighted a number of administration initiatives targeting
bullying, including the first National Bullying Summit, coordinated by the
Department of Education last August, and an alliance of public and private
suicide experts, called the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention,
just organized by the Department of Health and Human Services.
“When it comes to putting a stop to the bullying and harassment of LGBT
youth, we are not going to let up,” she said. “We are going to stand with
you. We are going to stand with every young person in this country who
deserves to grow up, learn, have fun, and live their lives.”
As he introduced Jarrett, HRC president Joe Solmonese told the crowd that he
and other HRC staffers were flying to Salt Lake City this week to join
Equality Utah, the Utah Pride Center, and Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian
Mormons to deliver approximately 150,000 petition signatures demanding that
Mormon Church leader Boyd Packer correct his recent statement calling same-
sex attraction “impure and unnatural.”
“Tonight across the country there are millions of kids struggling with
their sexual orientation or their gender identity,” Solmonese said. “They
are quite literally under attack by the people that they look up to, people
in positions of power, people who falsely perpetrate the idea that being gay
is somehow unhealthy or immoral…. It is horrifying and irresponsible when
the second-highest official in the Mormon Church tells the world the being
gay is ‘impure and unnatural’ and claims that you can simply pray it away.
” (Go here to sign the petition HRC will deliver to Mormon Church
headquarters on Tuesday.)
Also on hand at Saturday night’s event were actress Mo’Nique, who
introduced honoree Precious director Lee Daniels, Modern Family actors Jesse
Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet, and Bette Midler, who introduced
honoree Pink. |
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