評論
打印
In the simple act of saying "his partner, Mark," not "his friend," or not "his roommate."
她的話非常簡單："他的愛人馬克"，她沒有說"他的朋友"或者"他的室友"。
I mean you could hear the quote marks around the words. This is John's "roommate." His partner.
你甚至能從這話里聽出言不由衷的引號來：這是約翰的"室友"。"他的愛人"。
That simple act of calling things by their right names, it shattered a taboo, and that was beautiful and that was important.
僅僅幾個簡單的真實字眼，就打碎了慣常的禁忌。它如此美妙，如此重要。
But, it wasn't just important because of what it did for us at the table that day or what they did for us at the table.
但是，這話的重要性不僅僅針對席間的我們。
It's also important for those come after us.
它對我們的后輩同樣重要。
You know, one of the interesting things about gay and lesbian people, as a minority group is that, in a sense, our children are not born unto us.
同性戀人群的一個很有趣的事實是，同樣作為一個少數群體，我的孩子并不生來如我。
What I mean is this: black people generally have black children, Jewish people generally have Jewish children, any kind of people can have gay or lesbian children.
我想說的是：黑人的孩子是黑人，猶太人的孩子是猶太人，而任何人都可能有同性戀孩子。
Sometimes rabidly anti-gay people have gay and lesbian children.
有時候連激進的反同性戀族群也會生出同性戀子女來。
We can't protect them from a hostile world the way other minority groups can.
我們沒法用和其他少數族群相同的方法，來保護自己的孩子免于面對外部世界的敵意。
We can't necessarily give them the benefit of our experiences the way other groups can.
和其他族群不同，我們無法人我們的孩子從我們自身成長的經歷中獲益。
And I feel for these kids, partly because I was there and I know what it's like, and partly because they are, in a sense, they're our kids.
我真心關切那些同性戀孩子，一半因為我也曾經是他們中的一員，身歷同感；另一半是因為某種程度上，他們也是我的孩子。
So, what do we do for them?
我們能為他們做些什么？
Well, one thing we can do is we can educate their parents.
我們可以交給他們父母相關的知識。
And you know, that day when my mother said, "My son John and his partner, Mark,"
我媽媽幾年前那天說出"我兒子約翰，和他的愛人馬克"。
Some day that waitress may have a lesbian daughter or a gay son, and she may remember back and say,
而或許幾年后那位拿女服務員會有個同性戀子女，也許她會回憶起那天的事，然后對自己說：
"Hey you know what? The Corvinos had a gay son, and they went out to dinner with him and partner, and they seemed to be okay with that.
"科爾維諾一家也有個同性戀兒子，他們帶著他兒子的同性愛人一起吃飯，看上去他們都很自在。"
And that may seem so simple, but it's powerful.
這事情看起來簡單，但非常有力量。
Sometimes it can make all the difference, but we're only going to have things like that if we have moral courage.
有時，小小的事情能改變一切。但是，如果我們缺少道德上的勇氣的時候，這一切都不會發生。
And I mean it when I say moral courage.
當我說道德上的勇氣的時候，我發自肺腑地想要強調它。
And this is a very important point.
它如此重要。
One of the biggest misconceptions about the work that I do is that people think that I'm out to attack morality, that I'm out to espouse some moral relativism where I just say do whatever you feel, it doesn't matter, or that I'm telling people morality is a private matter-keep it to yourself, don't judge other people, I'm not about the moral judgments.
對我工作最大的誤解之一是有人會認為我是道德上的破壞者，或者他們會認為我擁護的是道德相對主義，我讓人們隨心所欲，不計后果，又或者認為我給人們灌輸"道德是私人的，在乎內心，莫論是非"這種觀念。
People think this about me. Nothing could be further from the truth.
但上面的這幾種觀點，和真實的我南轅北轍。
