On Valentine’s Day, actress Ellen Page came out in front of a large group of people at the Time to Thrive conference in Las Vegas. You can hear her moving and heartfelt speech by going here if you get my blog by e-mail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hlCEIUATzg but I’ll also attach the video below.
Since her speech, there has, of course, been a lot of critical backlash on the web. People are chiming in that being gay is a sin, and that horrible things should happen to Ellen and LGBT people in general. People are claiming that her speech was just a cheap way for her to get publicity. They are saying that there was no need to stir things up in this fashion.
What a steaming load of crap.
If you take the time to watch it, you can tell that coming out like this was a big deal to her. Her voice was shaking throughout the speech. But she did it for many reasons. Not only was she tired of lying by omission, but she knows she’s a role model, and she knows there are many LGBT youth out there who desperately need her to be one.
Suicide and depression rates among LGBT youth are a great deal higher than in the rest of the population. They are also much more likely to be bullied, harassed, discriminated against, and basically made to feel “less than.”
While I long for a time when someone saying “I’m gay” will cause as little an impression as saying “I have green eyes”, unfortunately now is not that time.
As long as we live in a world where people can be tied to barbed wire fences and beaten to death, we need people like Ellen Page to make speeches.
As long as there are countries where you can actually be imprisoned for being who you are, we need people like Ellen Page to make speeches.
As long as people can be attacked in the street for holding hands, and as long as there’s even one person out there who thinks that if you’re gay you must therefore be a pedophile, we need people like Ellen Page to make speeches.
As long as there are people out there who have to hide in closets of isolation, depression and pain because society will reject them otherwise, we need people like Ellen Page to make speeches.
There are dozens of public figures whom we are all pretty sure are gay, but they haven’t come out. This frustrates me, because they could be doing so much good in this world. Yes, they have a right to their privacy, but they are needed, and I call upon them to do the right thing.
A lesbian friend told me that when she came out to her fundamentalist Christian parents, her mother held her arms behind her back while her father beat her bloody, and then they locked her in a room for two weeks so she could “come to her senses.” She most certainly did. She hasn’t seen her parents since. But she went through years of depression afterwards on her way to becoming the proud lesbian she is today. She sure could have used this speech back then. And hopefully kids who are experiencing this same sort of alienation now will benefit from it as much as she would have.
So on behalf of dozens of friends as well as my favorite nephew, thank you, Ellen Page, for speaking out.
The View from a Drawbridge 
You’re right, you could just see how big a deal it was for her. It is shameful that declaring sexual orientation is something you have to do but these are the foundations to a world where being who you are will be the norm. Bravo to her and your friend who went through that horrific ordeal
Yes, maybe some day it won’t be a scandal or a risk or a source of ridicule, and then people will be able to keep their private lives private, but until that day, I’m so glad for those brave people who pave the way for the rest.
Amen to that!
I have done so many posts on this issue that all I can do is agree.
That’s good enough for me. 🙂
I will go back to arguing with the idiots sooner or later
I hear a lot of people saying “big deal” or that public people who come out are “attention seekers”. But you’ve perfectly summed up why folks choose to come out publicly. They are making a stand and setting an example for all the ones who are scared to show who they are. The fact that so many people get angered or mock those like Ellen Page who come out just prove that more needs to be done!
Exactly, Dylan!