Ian McKellan: "Your Mountainish Inhumanity"

On the Stephen Colbert show last week, Sir Ian McKellan delivered an impromptu monologue from the play Sir Thomas More, with some lines added, it is nowadays believed, by William Shakespeare himself.  What a powerful statement against the hate-fueled cruelty of unthinking mobs, then and now.

Shakespeare was not merely good with words: he saw through human nature and understood what makes people tick; and always upheld a kind-hearted, broad-minded Christian morality. This is the sort of thing one ought to gain from a study of good literature, properly taught.

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Stewart Takes the Cake-Bakers' Side

Sir Patrick Stewart on the Ashers Baking Company lawsuit in Northern Ireland:




What I Say: Your Head Trucker is inclined to agree with Sir Patrick. It is, as he said, a "deliciously difficult" subject: here we are not talking about merely providing a service, but about freedom of expression.

Think about it: would you want to be forced to write or print something that said "No Gay Marriage" or "Vote for Bush" or even "God Hates Fags"?

And how important is a cake, anyway?   I wouldn't want to buy a cake or anything else from someone who despised me.

Today's Quote: Sir Ian McKellen

From the L.A. Times via Towleroad:

I increasingly see organized religion as actually my enemy. They treat me as their enemy. Not all Christians, of course. Not all Jews, not all Muslims. But the leaders. . . . Why should I take the judgment of a declared celibate about my sexual needs? He's basing his judgment on laws that would fit life in the Bronze Age. So if I'm lost to God, organized religion is to blame.

What I say:  I always loved church, from the time I was a little boy.  But I finally realized, much later than I should have, that I really am not wanted there.  Not as I am - only as a silent, shut-away little boy, sexless and alone.

So I've stopped wishing and hoping to fit in where my presence as a fully human, fully adult, fully sexual man will never be welcomed.  But that's cool - God knows where I live, we visit all the time.

The Road Not Taken

Sir Ian McKellen on marriage and other things my generation missed out on:

It's never crossed my mind that it'd ever be possible for me. That's the scar that I and so many others bear—we believed ourselves to be second-rate citizens for so long, the idea of being able to say "This is my husband, these are my children" was not an option. I remember [playwright] Tom Stoppard saying to me when I came out, "I feel so sorry for you, because you'll never have children." These days I would say, "Well, why not, Tom?" But 20 years ago I accepted his judgment.

Honk to Joe.My.God.