This image and quote recently went viral on Twitter, after Chicago Sun-Times film critic Richard Roeper tweeted it with the remark: "'I'm Clint F------ Eastwood, and this is what I have to say about gay marriage.' BRAVO."
This quotation from the legendary actor, director and Hollywood tough man came from a recent interview with GQ magazine.
The Money Quote:
These people who are making a big deal out of gay marriage? I don't give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We're making a big deal out of things we shouldn't be making a deal out of. They go on and on with all this bullshit about "sanctity" -- don't give me that sanctity crap! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.
There is something truly beautiful about some straight guys' brazen approach to the topic of LGBT equality. See, they aren't trying to cope with a lifetime's baggage of feeling shameful and unworthy. And they aren't fetishizing the tactic of presenting their views in nice, inoffensive ways that won't scare the straight people. I imagine it never even crosses their mind that they shouldn't scare the straight people. They haven't sent their talking points through the advocacy organization car wash for a nice polish and buff, to ensure that they better appeal to America's soccer moms and NASCAR dads and are respectful of their deeply felt religious convictions.
Sure, carefully focus-grouped messages have their place, most especially when big dollars are spent by groups that still need the people in power to return their calls sometime in the future. This is a legitimate concern, as is the idea that calling opponent "assholes" may not win us many votes.
Bombastic messaging is actually most effective coming from folks who are safe from being dismissed as just another scary "radical homosexual activist!" That label just can't hang very authentically around Clint Eastwood's neck when he's the one calling conservative religious objections "bullshit."
And it got me thinking, so I compiled a top-10 list of some of the fiercest things our straight male allies have said on the topic of LGBT equality. (Warning: some of the content is totally NSFW.)
10 Straight Guys Who Are Also Fierce LGBT Allies
This is a expanded version of a post that first appeared on the Daily Kos blog.