I believe that children are our future

As the great Whitney Houston once said, “Teach them well and let them lead the way. Crack is whack.”

I think of her wisdom because of Ethan McNamee, an eight-year-old in Colorado who organized a gay rights rally this past Saturday as a school project, inspired by a neighbourhood couple unable to get married in that state. Here’s his prococious speech:

Predictably, opponents are disgusted, arguing that the boy was coached or pressured into this. Because people like the National Organization for Marriage would never, ever manipulate children for political purposes:

Children like Ethan aren’t confused. They know perfectly well when people are treated unfairly and they’re now beginning to respond to it. This weekend marked the International Day Against Homophobia on May 17th and included big gay rights celebrations in Cuba…

…a first-ever rally in Singapore…

 

…and one in Russia that…umm…wasn’t quite as cute:

Let’s move on quickly because, best of all, people from around in the around participated in a video to mark the gay-rights occasion — it’s a dose of warm fuzzies that should carry us through to Pride in June…

A former editor of the late, lamented fab magazine, Scott has been writing for Xtra since 2007 on a variety of topics in news pieces, interviews, blogs, reviews and humour pieces. He lives on the Danforth with his boyfriend of 12 years, a manic Jack Russell Terrier, a well-stocked mini-bar and a shelf of toy Daleks.

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