Freedom from hate: Barack Obama's memoir, It Get's Better and Equal Marriage

A few days ago I finished reading the memoir, "Dreams from my Father" by Barack Obama. What a joy that book is to read. The President writes with balance and wisdom, engaging his readers in the moving story about his early life and growth into adulthood. It is a gentle and compassionate look at himself as a young man, as he asks himself some tough questions about identity and belonging; about his country; and about his fellow human beings.

These words about his first experiences of visiting his father's family home in Kenya, leaped out at me from the page. They really brought home to me something of what it must be like to live in a society where you are different; in this case black in America. It also made me think about a place (that doesn't exist), or time, where different is ok. Thanks to shining lights in our world maybe that time and place is getting closer.

"I watched these nimble hands stitch and cut and weave, and listened to the old woman's voice roll over the sounds of work and barter, and for a moment the world seemed entirely transparent, I began to imagine an unchanging rhythm of days, lived on firm soil where you could wake up each morning and know that all was how it had been yesterday, where you saw how the things that you used had been made and could recite the lives of those who had made them and could believe that it would all hang together without computer terminals and fax machines. And all of this while a steady procession of black faces passed before your eyes, the round faces of babies and the chipped worn faces of the old; beautiful faces that made me understand the transformation that Asante and other black Americans claimed to have undergone after their first visit to Africa. For a span of weeks or months, you could experience the freedom that comes from not feeling watched, the freedom of believing that your hair grows as it is supposed to grow and that your rump sways the way a rump is supposed to sway. You could see a man talking to himself as just plain crazy, or read about the criminal on the front page of the daily paper and ponder the corruption of the human heart, without having to think about whether the criminal or lunatic said something about your own fate. Here the world was black, and so you were just you; you could discover all those things that were unique to your life without living a lie or committing betrayal."

Barack Obama - Dreams From My Father P311

President Obama speaking about the bullying of LBGT young people in school and about the It Gets Better Project. I love his words about young people growing up to fight discrimination of all kinds.

History was made this week in the United Kingdom with the the bill legalising same-sex marriage clearing another stage on its way to becoming law. Whilst it pains me to mention our Prime Minister on my blog, David Cameron(wash my mouth out), spoke on radio 4 this morning defending the government's controversial bill. For me this point of his in particular, was what is most important about this bill, the message it sends to gay people in society and also the message it sends to those who preach hatred and discrimination.

“I think we should think about it like this – that there will be young boys in schools today who are gay, who are worried about being bullied, who are worried about what society thinks of them, who can see that the highest Parliament in the land has said that their love is worth the same as anybody else’s love and that we believe in equality.

“I think they will stand that bit taller today and I’m proud of the fact that that has happened.”

I believe there are now fourteen countries that have legalised gay marriage. This video of the New Zealand Parliament breaking into song, just after the moment that gay marriage was legalised, brought tears to my eyes. The song is a Maori love song and I have copied the lyrics below for you.

I feel very proud to see my fellow human beings doing the right thing in so many places. 

It really does get better.

Pōkarekare ana, ngā wai o Waiapu
Whiti atu koe hine, marino ana e

E hine e, hoki mai ra, kamate ahau i te aroha e.

Tuhituhi taku reta, tuku atu taku rīni
Kia kite tō iwi, raruraru ana e.

E hine e, hoki mai ra, ka mate ahau i te aroha e.

Stormy are the waters on restless Waiapu
If you cross them, girl, they will be calmed

Oh girl, come back to me, my heart is dying of love for you.

I have written you a letter, and enclosed with it my ring,
So your people can see how troubled I am

Oh girl, come back to me, my heart is dying of love for you.