As a student of adversity, I've been struck over the years by how some people with major challenges seem to draw strength from them. And I've heard the popular wisdom that that has to do with finding meaning. And for a long time, I thought the meaning was out there, some great truth waiting to be found.
總在逆境中學習的我, 過去幾年來 看到有些人 在面對極大的挑戰時 卻能越挫越勇而感到很訝異。 我也常聽到有人說 這跟找尋意義有關。 很久以來, 我以為「意義」存在著, 就像某個待人尋找的真相。
But over time, I've come to feel that the truth is irrelevant. We call it "finding meaning," but we might better call it "forging meaning."
但經過一段時間, 我開始覺得真相並不重要。 我們稱之為找尋意義, 或許應該說是鑄造意義才對。
My last book was about how families manage to deal with various kinds of challenging or unusual offspring. And one of the mothers I interviewed, who had two children with multiple severe disabilities, said to me, "People always give us these little sayings like, 'God doesn't give you any more than you can handle.' But children like ours are not preordained as a gift. They're a gift because that's what we have chosen."
我的新書是關於 家庭如何應對各種挑戰 或是子女異於常人。 我訪談的其中一位母親, 兩個孩子都有多重嚴重身障, 她告訴我:「很多人都會告訴我們 一些俗語像是 『上帝絕不會給你超過你能負荷的試煉。』 但像我們家的孩子, 卻不註定是禮物。 他們之所以為禮物, 只因是我們所選擇的。」
We make those choices all our lives. When I was in second grade, Bobby Finkel had a birthday party and invited everyone in our class but me. My mother assumed there had been some sort of error, and she called Mrs. Finkel, who said that Bobby didn't like me and didn't want me at his party. And that day, my mom took me to the zoo and out for a hot fudge sundae. When I was in seventh grade, one of the kids on my school bus nicknamed me "Percy," as a shorthand for my demeanor. And sometimes, he and his cohort would chant that provocation the entire school bus ride, 45 minutes up, 45 minutes back: "Percy! Percy! Percy! Percy!" When I was in eighth grade, our science teacher told us that all male homosexuals develop fecal incontinence because of the trauma to their anal sphincter. And I graduated high school without ever going to the cafeteria, where I would have sat with the girls and been laughed at for doing so, or sat with the boys, and been laughed at for being a boy who should be sitting with the girls.
我們一生都在做這種決定。 當我國小二年級時, 巴比.芬可辦了個慶生會, 並邀請全班參加,除了我以外。 我媽以為或許是哪裡弄錯, 所以打給芬可的媽媽。 她卻告訴我母親,巴比不喜歡我, 所以不要我參加他的慶生會。 當天,我媽帶我到動物園, 還買了個熔岩巧克力聖代給我。 我國一時, 校車上有位同學 替我取了綽號「波西」 來取笑我的言行舉止。 有時候,他和同夥 會不斷覆頌這詞。 整段來回學校的公車上, 45 分鐘上學、45 分鐘放學的路上, 不斷喊:「波西!波西!波西!」 我國二時, 科學課的老師說 所有男同性戀 都會大便失禁, 因為肛門括約肌的損傷。 我高中畢業以前 從沒去過學校餐廳, 因為如果去了, 我也會跟女生坐在一起, 然後因此被取笑; 或是與男生坐一起, 然後被取笑 我是個該跟女生坐一塊的男孩子。
I survived that childhood through a mix of avoidance and endurance. What I didn't know then and do know now, is that avoidance and endurance can be the entryway to forging meaning. After you've forged meaning, you need to incorporate that meaning into a new identity. You need to take the traumas and make them part of who you've come to be, and you need to fold the worst events of your life into a narrative of triumph, evincing a better self in response to things that hurt.
我之所以安然度過童年, 都是透過逃避跟忍受。 我當時並不知道, 而現在已經知道的是, 逃避和忍受 會是鑄造意義的起點。 在你鑄造意義之後, 需要將這意義 融入到新的身分中。 你需要讓經歷過的創傷 成為自己的一部分, 並將人生中經歷過的最糟事件 化為勝利的故事, 成為更好的自己, 以回應那些曾傷害你的事。
One of the other mothers I interviewed when I was working on my book had been raped as an adolescent, and had a child following that rape, which had thrown away her career plans and damaged all of her emotional relationships. But when I met her, she was 50, and I said to her, "Do you often think about the man who raped you?" And she said, "I used to think about him with anger, but now only with pity." And I thought she meant pity because he was so unevolved as to have done this terrible thing. And I said, "Pity?" And she said, "Yes, because he has a beautiful daughter and two beautiful grandchildren, and he doesn't know that, and I do. So as it turns out, I'm the lucky one."
我寫書時所訪談過的 其中一位母親 在青少年時期曾被強暴, 還因此懷孕生子, 讓她必須從此拋棄原有的事業計劃, 且重創了她所有的感情關係。 當我認識她時,她 50 歲, 我告訴她: 「妳會時常想起強暴妳的那個人嗎?」 她回答:「我以前想到他會滿腔怒火, 但現在只會可憐他。」 我本想,她說的可憐是覺得 強暴犯野蠻到會做出這種事。 我問:「可憐?」 她說:「是啊, 因為他有這麼漂亮的女兒, 以及兩位可愛的小孫子, 卻一點都不知道,而我知道。 所以我其實才是幸運的那一個。」
Some of our struggles are things we're born to: our gender, our sexuality, our race, our disability. And some are things that happen to us: being a political prisoner, being a rape victim, being a Katrina survivor. Identity involves entering a community to draw strength from that community, and to give strength there, too. It involves substituting "and" for "but" -- not "I am here but I have cancer," but rather, "I have cancer and I am here."
我們面臨到的有些掙扎是天生的: 性別、性向、種族、殘疾。 有些則是後天的: 政治犯、性侵被害者、 卡崔娜颶風生還者。 建立身分需要進到一個社群, 從那社群中找尋力量, 並給予社群力量。 需要用「而且」代替「但是」, 不要說:「我還活著,但我患有癌症。」 而是說:「我患有癌症,而我還活著。」
When we're ashamed, we can't tell our stories, and stories are the foundation of identity. Forge meaning, build identity. Forge meaning and build identity. That became my mantra. Forging meaning is about changing yourself. Building identity is about changing the world. All of us with stigmatized identities face this question daily: How much to accommodate society by constraining ourselves, and how much to break the limits of what constitutes a valid life? Forging meaning and building identity does not make what was wrong right. It only makes what was wrong precious.
當我們羞愧的時候, 我們就無法述說自己的故事, 而這些故事正是身分的基礎。 鑄造意義、建立身分; 鑄造意義、建立身分。 這變成了我的咒語。 鑄造意義是關於改變自己; 建立身分是關於改變世界。 身分被汙名化的所有人 每天都面對這個問題: 為了融入社會 要限制自己多少? 要打破多少限制 才能活出一個真正的人生? 鑄造意義和建立身分 並不會顛倒是非, 只會讓錯變得更寶貴。
In January of this year, I went to Myanmar to interview political prisoners, and I was surprised to find them less bitter than I'd anticipated. Most of them had knowingly committed the offenses that landed them in prison, and they had walked in with their heads held high, and they walked out with their heads still held high, many years later. Dr. Ma Thida, a leading human rights activist who had nearly died in prison and had spent many years in solitary confinement, told me she was grateful to her jailers for the time she had had to think, for the wisdom she had gained, for the chance to hone her meditation skills. She had sought meaning and made her travail into a crucial identity. But if the people I met were less bitter than I'd anticipated about being in prison, they were also less thrilled than I'd expected about the reform process going on in their country. Ma Thida said, "We Burmese are noted for our tremendous grace under pressure, but we also have grievance under glamour." She said, "And the fact that there have been these shifts and changes doesn't erase the continuing problems in our society that we learned to see so well while we were in prison."
今年一月 我到緬甸訪問政治犯。 我感到意外的是, 他們比我想像中的還怡然自得。 大部分的政治犯 明知道他們所犯下的罪 會讓他們進監獄, 但仍昂首地走進獄中, 多年後同樣 昂首地走出來。 馬蒂妲醫生是人權積極分子, 她差點死在監獄中, 且有好幾年都在單獨監禁中度過。 她告訴我,她很感激那些獄吏 讓她有時間思考、 讓她更有智慧、 讓她有機會增進冥想技巧。 她也尋求這其中的意義, 並將痛苦轉為很重要的一種身分。 但如果我遇見的這些人 對於身在監獄 比我想像中的更加泰然, 那他們也比我預料中的更不期待 他們國家所經歷的改革過程。 馬蒂妲說: 「我們緬甸人很著名的是 面對壓力時所展現的無比優雅, 但在我們的光環底下也有委屈。」 她說:「而事實是, 這些轉換和改變 並不會消弭我們社會中 一直存在的問題, 我們在監獄中的時候, 把這些問題都看清了。」
I understood her to be saying that concessions confer only a little humanity where full humanity is due; that crumbs are not the same as a place at the table. Which is to say, you can forge meaning and build identity and still be mad as hell.
我認為她的意思是 在人性需要真正能顯現的地方, 妥協只賦予一丁點人性, 就像給人麵包屑, 不等於可以坐上桌一樣。 也就是說,你可以鑄造意義 並建立身分, 同時還是滿腔怒火。
I've never been raped, and I've never been in anything remotely approaching a Burmese prison. But as a gay American, I've experienced prejudice and even hatred, and I've forged meaning and I've built identity, which is a move I learned from people who had experienced far worse privation than I've ever known. In my own adolescence, I went to extreme lengths to try to be straight. I enrolled myself in something called "sexual surrogacy therapy," in which people I was encouraged to call doctors prescribed what I was encouraged to call exercises with women I was encouraged to call surrogates, who were not exactly prostitutes but who were also not exactly anything else.
我沒有被強暴過, 也從來沒有做過任何 會被關進緬甸監獄的事。 但身為同性戀的美國人, 我經歷過偏見甚至仇恨, 我鑄造過意義也建立過身分, 這是我從那些 比我經歷過更糟糕處境的人身上 學到的對策。 我自己的青少年時期, 也曾為了改變性向而做出極端之舉。 我參與了一種 性向替代療法。 裡面有所謂的醫生, 需要做所謂的療法, 對象是所謂的女性代理人, 這些代理人不算妓女, 但也不算是其他別的。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
My particular favorite was a blonde woman from the Deep South who eventually admitted to me that she was really a necrophiliac, and had taken this job after she got in trouble down at the morgue.
我最喜歡的代理人 是一位來自南方腹地的金髮女人, 後來終於跟我承認 她有戀屍癖, 她之所以會做這份工作, 是因為她在停屍間遇到了點麻煩。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
These experiences eventually allowed me to have some happy physical relationships with women, for which I'm grateful. But I was at war with myself, and I dug terrible wounds into my own psyche.
這種經驗終究讓我 跟女性有種蠻愉悅的肢體關係, 對此我很感激, 但我陷入與自己的戰爭中, 也在我心底埋下很深的創傷。
We don't seek the painful experiences that hew our identities, but we seek our identities in the wake of painful experiences. We cannot bear a pointless torment, but we can endure great pain if we believe that it's purposeful. Ease makes less of an impression on us than struggle. We could have been ourselves without our delights, but not without the misfortunes that drive our search for meaning. "Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities," St. Paul wrote in Second Corinthians, "for when I am weak, then I am strong."
我們並不找尋 會鑿開身分的痛苦經驗, 但我們尋找的身分 是尾隨痛苦經驗而來的。 我們無法承受無意義的折磨, 但我們可以忍受極大的痛苦, 只要我們相信這是有意義的。 泰然在我們身上留下的印記 比掙扎更淺。 沒有喜樂我們還是可以做自己, 但沒了驅使我們 找尋意義的厄運那就做不到。 「因此,我以軟弱為歡喜,」 聖保羅在哥林多後書裡寫道, 「因為當我軟弱時,我就能變得剛強。」
In 1988, I went to Moscow to interview artists of the Soviet underground. I expected their work to be dissident and political. But the radicalism in their work actually lay in reinserting humanity into a society that was annihilating humanity itself, as, in some senses, Russian society is now doing again. One of the artists I met said to me, "We were in training to be not artists but angels."
1988 年,我去了莫斯科 訪問蘇聯地鐵的藝術家, 我期望他們的作品是 充滿異議及政治的。 但他們作品中的激進 其實是為了將人性重放回社會中, 因為這個社會正在泯滅人性, 某些方面看來, 這樣的事在俄羅斯社會正在重演。 其中一位藝術家告訴我: 「我們被訓練做天使,而非藝術家」。
In 1991, I went back to see the artists I'd been writing about, and I was with them during the putsch that ended the Soviet Union. And they were among the chief organizers of the resistance to that putsch. And on the third day of the putsch, one of them suggested we walk up to Smolenskaya. And we went there, and we arranged ourselves in front of one of the barricades, and a little while later, a column of tanks rolled up. And the soldier on the front tank said, "We have unconditional orders to destroy this barricade. If you get out of the way, we don't need to hurt you. But if you won't move, we'll have no choice but to run you down." The artist I was with said, "Give us just a minute. Give us just a minute to tell you why we're here." And the soldier folded his arms, and the artist launched into a Jeffersonian panegyric to democracy such as those of us who live in a Jeffersonian democracy would be hard-pressed to present. And they went on and on, and the soldier watched. And then he sat there for a full minute after they were finished and looked at us, so bedraggled in the rain, and said, "What you have said is true, and we must bow to the will of the people. If you'll clear enough space for us to turn around, we'll go back the way we came." And that's what they did. Sometimes, forging meaning can give you the vocabulary you need to fight for your ultimate freedom.
1991 年,我又回去 見了這些我筆下的藝術家, 當推翻蘇聯的政變發生時, 我正與他們在一起, 他們也與推動政變的主要發起人一起。 政變第三天, 有人建議我們走到斯摩棱斯克。 我們到那時, 在路障前面找個位置待著。 一會兒過後, 一排坦克車過來, 第一輛坦克車上的士兵說: 「我們有令, 不論如何都要破壞這些柵欄。 如果你們現在讓開, 那我們就不會傷害你們。 但如果你們不走, 我們只能將你們輾過去,別無他擇。」 我身邊的藝術家就說: 「給我們一分鐘, 就一分鐘,述說我們來此的原因。」 那位士兵雙手在胸前交叉, 然後藝術家唸了傑佛遜的民主頌詞, 我們這些 住在傑佛遜式民主國家的人 都還唸不出來的頌詞。 他們一直說下去, 而士兵也看著, 他聽完後, 在那裡坐滿一分鐘, 就在雨中看著滿是泥濘的我們, 說道: 「你們說的是事實, 而我們必須遵從人民的意志。 如果你們願意讓路讓我們掉頭, 那我們會照原路回去。」 他們也確實這麼做了。 有時候,鑄造意義 可以給你所需的詞彙, 讓你爭取最終的自由。
Russia awakened me to the lemonade notion that oppression breeds the power to oppose it. And I gradually understood that as the cornerstone of identity. It took identity to rescue me from sadness. The gay rights movement posits a world in which my aberrances are a victory. Identity politics always works on two fronts: to give pride to people who have a given condition or characteristic, and to cause the outside world to treat such people more gently and more kindly. Those are two totally separate enterprises, but progress in each sphere reverberates in the other. Identity politics can be narcissistic. People extol a difference only because it's theirs. People narrow the world and function in discrete groups without empathy for one another. But properly understood and wisely practiced, identity politics should expand our idea of what it is to be human. Identity itself should be not a smug label or a gold medal, but a revolution.
俄羅斯讓我想到檸檬汁的概念, 壓榨只會助長反對勢力, 而我漸漸了解 這就是身分的基石。 身分將我從悲傷中拯救出來。 在同志權運動所設想的世界裡, 我的缺陷是種勝利。 身分政治總有兩個目標: 讓有特殊情況或特徵的人自豪, 以及讓外面的世界 以更溫和的方式善待那些人。 這是兩種很不同的目標, 但不管是哪一邊的進展, 都能在另一邊得到回響。 身分政治也可以是很自戀的。 人們吹捧與眾不同, 只因為他們就是如此。 人們窄化個別群體的世界及功能, 對他人沒有同理心。 但只要充分理解 並聰明執行, 身分政治應該可以 擴展我們對於人性的想法。 身分本身 不應該是沾沾自喜的標籤, 也不該是金牌, 而是革命。
I would have had an easier life if I were straight, but I would not be me. And I now like being myself better than the idea of being someone else, someone who, to be honest, I have neither the option of being nor the ability fully to imagine. But if you banish the dragons, you banish the heroes, and we become attached to the heroic strain in our own lives. I've sometimes wondered whether I could have ceased to hate that part of myself without gay pride's technicolor fiesta, of which this speech is one manifestation.
如果我是異性戀,那我的生活會輕鬆些, 但那就不會是我了。 現在,我更喜歡做自己, 而非成為其他人的想法, 老實說那樣的人, 我不只根本當不成, 也無法想像他們的生活。 但如果你驅除惡龍, 你也驅逐了英雄, 我們也會變得依賴 自己生命中英雄特質。 我有時候會想 我有沒有辦法停止憎恨那部分的自己, 不需藉由同志自豪日的豔麗慶典, 而這場演講就是其中一種表現方式。
(Laughter)
我之前認為自己真正成長的時候,
I used to think I would know myself to be mature when I could simply be gay without emphasis. But the self-loathing of that period left a void, and celebration needs to fill and overflow it, and even if I repay my private debt of melancholy, there's still an outer world of homophobia that it will take decades to address. Someday, being gay will be a simple fact, free of party hats and blame. But not yet. A friend of mine who thought gay pride was getting very carried away with itself, once suggested that we organize Gay Humility Week.
就是我能不多強調 自己同志身分地當同志, 但那時期的自我厭惡 留下了一塊空白, 需要歡樂的事來填滿它, 但即使我還清自己的悲傷債, 外面還是有恐懼同志的世界, 這需要幾十年的時間解決。 有一天, 當同性戀只會是個簡單的事實, 沒有區分與指責。 但這天還沒到。 我有個朋友覺得 同志自豪日好像辦得越來越過火, 然後建議我們舉辦
(Laughter)
同志謙遜週。
(Applause)
(笑聲)(掌聲)
It's a great idea.
這想法很好,
(Laughter)
但時候未到。
But its time has not yet come.
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And neutrality, which seems to lie halfway between despair and celebration, is actually the endgame.
還有中立性, 看似就位在絕望與慶祝中間, 其實就是終局。
In 29 states in the US, I could legally be fired or denied housing for being gay. In Russia, the anti-propaganda law has led to people being beaten in the streets. Twenty-seven African countries have passed laws against sodomy. And in Nigeria, gay people can legally be stoned to death, and lynchings have become common. In Saudi Arabia recently, two men who had been caught in carnal acts were sentenced to 7,000 lashes each, and are now permanently disabled as a result. So who can forge meaning and build identity? Gay rights are not primarily marriage rights, and for the millions who live in unaccepting places with no resources, dignity remains elusive. I am lucky to have forged meaning and built identity, but that's still a rare privilege. And gay people deserve more, collectively, than the crumbs of justice.
在美國的 29 州裡, 我可以被合法開除或拒絕居住, 就因為我是同性戀。 在俄羅斯,反宣傳法 導致有人在街頭被打死。 27 個非洲國家 通過了禁止肛交的法律。 而在奈及利亞, 同志可以合法地被投石致死, 私刑也越來越常見。 最近在沙烏地阿拉伯, 兩名男子發生性行為被抓個正著, 因此各被判七千下鞭刑, 導致他們現在終身殘廢。 所以誰可以鑄造意義, 並建立身分? 同志權不只有婚姻權, 對於在其他不接受同性戀國家的上百萬人, 他們沒有資源, 也毫無尊嚴。 我很幸運可以鑄造意義 並建立身分, 但這是很罕見的特權, 同性戀值得更多的公平正義, 而不是那一丁點。
And yet, every step forward is so sweet. In 2007, six years after we met, my partner and I decided to get married. Meeting John had been the discovery of great happiness and also the elimination of great unhappiness. And sometimes, I was so occupied with the disappearance of all that pain, that I forgot about the joy, which was at first the less remarkable part of it to me. Marrying was a way to declare our love as more a presence than an absence.
但是這過程的每一步 都很甜蜜。 2007 年,我們相識六年後, 我的伴侶和我 決定結婚。 認識約翰,我找到了 幸福喜樂, 也消除了很多過去的不幸福。 有時候我腦子甚至會一直想著 那些痛苦的消失, 而忘記那些喜樂, 因為那起初對我來說 並沒有那麼有印象。 結婚是種宣誓我們愛的方式, 是證明其存在而非不存在。
Marriage soon led us to children, and that meant new meanings and new identities -- ours and theirs. I want my children to be happy, and I love them most achingly when they are sad. As a gay father, I can teach them to own what is wrong in their lives, but I believe that if I succeed in sheltering them from adversity, I will have failed as a parent. A Buddhist scholar I know once explained to me that Westerners mistakenly think that nirvana is what arrives when all your woe is behind you, and you have only bliss to look forward to. But he said that would not be nirvana, because your bliss in the present would always be shadowed by the joy from the past. Nirvana, he said, is what you arrive at when you have only bliss to look forward to and find in what looked like sorrows the seedlings of your joy. And I sometimes wonder whether I could have found such fulfillment in marriage and children if they'd come more readily, if I'd been straight in my youth or were young now, in either of which cases this might be easier. Perhaps I could. Perhaps all the complex imagining I've done could have been applied to other topics. But if seeking meaning matters more than finding meaning, the question is not whether I'd be happier for having been bullied, but whether assigning meaning to those experiences has made me a better father. I tend to find the ecstasy hidden in ordinary joys, because I did not expect those joys to be ordinary to me.
婚姻很也快地帶來小孩子, 這也就表示新的意義 與新的身分,我們和他們的身分。 我要我的孩子快快樂樂, 他們難過時, 我對他們的愛也感受得到痛。 身為同性戀父親,我可以教他們 面對人生中出錯的部分, 但我相信,如果我成功地 保護他們免受逆境之苦, 那我反而是個失敗的父親。 我認識的一位佛教學者告訴我, 西方人錯誤地認為 極樂世界只會在 你所有的悲傷都被拋在腦後時出現, 所以你只要期盼喜樂就好。 但他說那樣就不是極樂世界了, 因為你當下的喜樂 總會被過去喜樂的陰影所蒙蔽。 他說,極樂世界是 當你以找尋喜樂為目標, 且從看似悲傷的情況中 找到喜樂的種子。 我有時候會想 我能否在婚姻與兒女中找到滿足, 如果他們能來得更加簡單, 如果我年輕時變成異性戀, 或是現在還年輕, 不管哪種情況,會不會變得更容易。 或許會吧。 或許我所想像的那些複雜內容 可以適用在其他話題上。 但如果尋求意義 比找尋意義重要, 那問題不會是 我被欺負時會不會快樂一點, 而是賦予意義 給那些經驗 能不能讓我成為更好的父親。 我常在平凡的喜樂中 找到令人狂喜的事, 因為我並沒有想到那些喜樂 對我來說是平凡的。
I know many heterosexuals who have equally happy marriages and families, but gay marriage is so breathtakingly fresh, and gay families so exhilaratingly new, and I found meaning in that surprise.
我知道很多異性戀的人 有很快樂的婚姻與家庭, 但同性戀婚姻有如一股清流, 同性戀家庭也很新穎, 在這樣的驚喜中,我也找到意義。
In October, it was my 50th birthday, and my family organized a party for me. And in the middle of it, my son said to my husband that he wanted to make a speech. And John said, "George, you can't make a speech. You're four."
我十月時度過 50 歲生日, 家人替我辦了慶生會。 到一半的時候, 我兒子告訴我丈夫, 他想要發表演講, 約翰告訴他: 「喬治,你不會演講啦,你才四歲。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
"Only Grandpa and Uncle David and I are going to make speeches tonight." But George insisted and insisted, and finally, John took him up to the microphone, and George said very loudly, "Ladies and gentlemen! May I have your attention, please?" And everyone turned around, startled. And George said, "I'm glad it's daddy's birthday. I'm glad we all get cake. And Daddy, if you were little, I'd be your friend."
「只有爺爺、大衛叔叔和我 今晚可以演講。」 但喬治不斷堅持, 約翰才終於把麥克風交給他, 然後喬治很大聲地說: 「各位先生女士, 請大家注意我這邊。」 大家嚇了一跳,轉頭看他。 然後喬治說: 「我很高興今天是爸爸生日。 我很高興大家都有蛋糕。 爸爸,如果你現在還是小朋友, 那我願意當你的朋友。」
(Gasp)
And I thought -- (Applause) Thank you. I thought that I was indebted even to Bobby Finkel, because all those earlier experiences were what had propelled me to this moment, and I was finally unconditionally grateful for a life I'd once have done anything to change.
我想──謝謝。 我想我也要感謝 巴比.芬可, 因為過去的那些經驗 才讓我有現在這一刻, 我終於能夠無條件地感激現在的生活, 這個我曾經願意不顧一切改變的人生。
The gay activist Harvey Milk was once asked by a younger gay man what he could do to help the movement, and Harvey Milk said, "Go out and tell someone." There's always somebody who wants to confiscate our humanity. And there are always stories that restore it. If we live out loud, we can trounce the hatred, and expand everyone's lives.
同性戀積極分子哈維.米爾克 曾經被年輕的同性戀男子問, 他能做什麼幫忙同性戀活動。 哈維.米爾克回答: 「走出去告訴別人吧。」 總是會有人 想要奪走我們的人性, 但也總是有重建人性的故事。 如果我們活得精彩, 我們就能擊敗怨恨 並充實每個人的生活。
Forge meaning. Build identity. Forge meaning. Build identity. And then invite the world to share your joy.
鑄造意義;建立身分。 鑄造意義; 建立身分。 然後邀請全世界 來分享你的喜悅。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
Thank you.
謝謝。(掌聲)
(Applause)
謝謝。(掌聲)
Thank you.
(Applause)
Thank you.
謝謝。(掌聲)
(Applause)