Anthony Milton Accepts LGBTEENS' Endorsement for 2018 Election
Anthony Milton on stage at Brennanhaven
Thank you! Thank you so much! Thank you!
When I was a boy in Neukiel, my best friend growing up was named Brian. He lived three doors down from me, with his dad. His mom had died when he was young. He had a little sister named Crystal. We played rugby together as kids. We went to school. When I got a Nintendo system, he was over at my house every day for hours playing it with me.
When we started highschool at Tanno Lalle'e High, I noticed Brian acting differently. He was more withdrawn, more quiet. One day, when we were walking home from school, I asked him what was wrong. He started crying. We sat down on the curb. He told me that he was gay, and he was scared. Because he'd heard people at school making gay jokes. Because he saw what was going on in the news. Because he heard about the "gay cancer" - AIDS. He was scared he was going to end up alone.
I was taken aback. At that time, I had never known a gay person. I never knew that Brian was gay. But I loved him like the brother I never had. I stood him up and hugged him. We walked home. I watched him go into his house. We waved.
That was the last time I saw him alive.
That night, Brian came out to his father. His father rejected him, and told him to get out the next morning. Instead, Brian hanged himself in his room.
That next day was the worst day of my life. School was a daze. His sister, Crystal, was nearly catatonic with grief. She didn't speak for a week. I visited her at her aunt's house. That's when she spoke her first words since her brother's death. She looked at me and told me "never again."
Never again.
The next day, me, Crystal and some of our friends met after school in John Mueller's classroom. That was the first meeting of the organization known as LGBTEENS.
14 people grew to 30, grew to 100, grew to 500. And now here we are, thousands of us, together in this arena, coming together to declare in one voice: never again!
I look around this arena and I know that Brian would think that this is pretty cool.
And it is with Brian's memory etched firmly in my mind that on behalf of the Socialist Party I accept LGBTEENS' endorsement for the 2018 election.
My friends, we've made huge strides since that day in Mr. Mueller's class. But we still have much work to be done. Lamarna has fallen woefully behind on LGBTQ rights compared to the our allies around the world. Australia just legalized same-sex marriage a few months ago.
My friends, it's time.
The first priority of a Socialist government will be the full enactment of same-sex marriage nationwide, because for too long the queer community has been subjected to separate-but-equal status in a nation that supposedly values all. The time has come for our civic institutions to move into the 21st century.
But our discrimination laws have to move forward, too. No one should be fired or denied a service or treated poorly because of something they cannot control. Which is why a Socialist government will move to include sexual orientation and gender identity in the Anti Discrimination Act.
We need these things, so no one ever has to go through the heartbreak Crystal went through. We need these things, so that LGBTQ youth are no longer 75% more likely to commit suicide, or 48% more likely to end up homeless and 85% more likely drug addicted, so that LGBTQ youth no longer feel unsafe at home or at school. So they are no more made to feel like they are bad people because of who they are.
We've made great progress, and this organization has been at the forefront of that progress. But we still have a long way to go. But if the people in this building stay together, and work together to make Lamarna and the world a better place, we cannot be defeated.
Thank you all! Long live Lamarna!
