Election night 2008 was a night that tore me in half. It was the night that Barack Obama was elected. [One hundred and forty-three] years after the end of slavery, and [43] years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, an African-American was elected president. Many of us never thought that this was possible until the moment that it happened. And in many ways, it was the climax of the black civil rights movement in the United States.
2008 年的選舉夜 是讓我被分裂成二的一個夜晚。 這是巴拉克·歐巴馬當選總統的夜晚。 在奴隸制度廢除 148 年後, 在選舉權法案 通過 48 年後, 一位非裔美國人被選為總統。 我們當中很多人從不認為這是可能的事情, 直到它發生的那一刻。 而從很多方面來說,它都是美國 黑人民權運動 的高潮。
I was in California that night, which was ground zero at the time for another movement: the marriage equality movement. Gay marriage was on the ballot in the form of Proposition 8, and as the election returns started to come in, it became clear that the right for same sex couples to marry, which had recently been granted by the California courts, was going to be taken away. So on the same night that Barack Obama won his historic presidency, the lesbian and gay community suffered one of our most painful defeats.
那天晚上,我在加州, 那天是另外一個 民權運動的起點: 婚姻平等運動。 同性戀婚姻已以 8 號提案的形式在選票。 而當選舉申報書開始被提交時, 關於同性伴侶婚姻權的結果 也逐漸清晰, 這項已被加州法庭授予的權力 將要被剝奪。 所以,在巴拉克·歐巴馬贏得 其歷史性總統選舉的同一晚, 男女同性戀群體遭受到了 最令我們心痛的失敗之一。
And then it got even worse. Pretty much immediately, African-Americans started to be blamed for the passage of Proposition 8. This was largely due to an incorrect poll that said that blacks had voted for the measure by something like 70 percent. This turned out not to be true, but this idea of pervasive black homophobia set in, and was grabbed on by the media. I couldn't tear myself away from the coverage. I listened to some gay commentator say that the African-American community was notoriously homophobic, and now that civil rights had been achieved for us, we wanted to take away other people's rights. There were even reports of racist epithets being thrown at some of the participants of the gay rights rallies that took place after the election. And on the other side, some African-Americans dismissed or ignored homophobia that was indeed real in our community. And others resented this comparison between gay rights and civil rights, and once again, the sinking feeling that two minority groups of which I'm both a part of were competing with each other instead of supporting each other overwhelmed and, frankly, pissed me off.
而接下來,事情變得更糟。 幾乎是同時, 人們開始責備非裔美籍的人 認為他們支持通過提案 8。 這主要是因為某個錯誤的民意調查說, 大概約 70% 的黑人 投票支持了這個措施。 這儘管不是事實, 但這個黑人對同性戀恐懼的概念開始蔓延 進入了人們的意識,並被媒體大作文章。 我沒有辦法不去關注媒體的報導。 我聽到某位同性戀的評論員說, 非裔美籍人社群 是臭名昭著地討厭同性戀, 而現在我們民權已經實現了, 我們卻想要剝奪其他人的權利。 甚至有報導表明, 在選舉結束後, 有一些同性戀權益的會眾 喊出種族歧視的口號。 而另一方面, 某些非裔美籍人反對或忽視 在我們社會裡正存在的同性戀恐懼症。 而其他人,對把同性戀權利和 民權相提並論表示憤慨, 再一次,我有下沉的感覺, 因為我同時屬於的兩個 少數族群, 在互相對抗 而不是互相支持, 使我壓得喘不過氣來, 老實說,也讓我非常生氣。
Now, I'm a documentary filmmaker, so after going through my pissed off stage and yelling at the television and radio, my next instinct was to make a movie. And what guided me in making this film was, how was this happening? How was it that the gay rights movement was being pitted against the civil rights movement? And this wasn't just an abstract question. I'm a beneficiary of both movements, so this was actually personal. But then something else happened after that election in 2008. The march towards gay equality accelerated at a pace that surprised and shocked everyone, and is still reshaping our laws and our policies, our institutions and our entire country. And so it started to become increasingly clear to me that this pitting of the two movements against each other actually didn't make sense, and that they were in fact much, much more interconnected, and that, in fact, some of the way that the gay rights movement has been able to make such incredible gains so quickly is that it's used some of the same tactics and strategies that were first laid down by the civil rights movement. Let's just look at a few of these strategies.
我是一名記錄片製片人, 所以在經歷了「非常生氣」的階段, 並且在對着電視或廣播大聲叫喊後, 我的下一個直覺 是要拍一部電影。 在拍這部電影時引導我的是, 這樣的對抗是怎麼發生的? 為何同性戀權利的運動 在對抗民權運動? 而這不是一個抽象的問題。 我是這兩個運動的受益人, 所以,這實際上跟我切身相關。 然而,在 2008 年的選舉後, 其他事情發生了。 邁向同性戀平等權利的步伐 速度之快 讓所有人驚訝和震驚, 並繼續在重塑我們的法律和制度, 我們的組織機構和我們的整個國家。 所以很快地,我漸漸看清了, 這兩個運動的對抗 完全不合理, 而事實上, 他們的關聯很緊密, 實際上, 某些同性戀權利的運動 能如此快速地獲得成效 在於它運用了某些最初 由民權運動奠定基礎的 策略和戰略。 讓我們來看幾個這些策略。
First off, it's really interesting to see, to actually visually see, how quick the gay rights movement has made its gains, if you look at a few of the major events on a timeline of both freedom movements. Now, there are tons of milestones in the civil rights movement, but the first one we're going to start with is the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott. This was a protest campaign against Montgomery, Alabama's segregation on their public transit system, and it began when a woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person. The campaign lasted a year, and it galvanized the civil rights movement like nothing had before it. And I call this strategy the "I'm tired of your foot on my neck" strategy.
首先,非常有趣的是看到, 真正地看到 同性戀權利運動如何快速地前進, 如果你在這兩個自由運動的時間軸上 來比較幾個主要的事件即可看出。 在民權運動中 有很多的里程碑, 但我們先來看看, 1955年的蒙哥馬利巴士抵制運動。 這是個反對蒙哥馬利的 抗議活動,即抗議在阿拉巴馬州 公共交通系統中的種族隔離。 事件起始於一位叫羅莎·帕克斯的婦女, 拒絕在公車上把她的座位讓給一位白人。 這個活動持續了一年, 其推動了民權運動的動力 是前所未見的。 我將這策略稱之為 「再也受不了有人 把腳踩在我脖子上」策略。
So gays and lesbians have been in society since societies began, but up until the mid-20th century, homosexual acts were still illegal in most states. So just 14 years after the Montgomery bus boycott, a group of LGBT folks took that same strategy. It's known as Stonewall, in 1969, and it's where a group of LGBT patrons fought back against police beatings at a Greenwich Village bar that sparked three days of rioting. Incidentally, black and latino LGBT folks were at the forefront of this rebellion, and it's a really interesting example of the intersection of our struggles against racism, homophobia, gender identity and police brutality. After Stonewall happened, gay liberation groups sprang up all over the country, and the modern gay rights movement as we know it took off.
男同性戀和女同性戀 自從有社會開始,就已經存在了, 但直到 20 世紀中, 同性戀行為在大部分州仍是不合法的。 在蒙哥馬利巴士抵制運動發生 14 年後, 一群 LGBT 同性戀社群採用了同樣的策略。 這就是有名的 1969 年「石牆暴動」, 一群 LGBT 支持者 在格林威治村的一個酒吧 還擊警察的毆打,此事件引發了 三天的暴動。 剛好的是,非裔和拉丁美洲裔的 LGBT 們 在了這個暴動的前沿戰鬥, 而這是個非常有趣, 我們面對種族歧視、同性戀、性別認同及 警察暴力的鬥爭匯聚到同一點的例子。 「石牆暴動」發生後,男女同性戀群體 在全國各地湧現, 而現代同性戀權利運動 就我們所知,從此開始。
So the next moment to look at on the timeline is the 1963 March on Washington. This was a seminal event in the civil rights movement and it's where African-Americans called for both civil and economic justice. And it's of course where Martin Luther King delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech, but what's actually less known is that this march was organized by a man named Bayard Rustin. Bayard was an out gay man, and he's considered one of the most brilliant strategists of the civil rights movement. He later in his life became a fierce advocate of LGBT rights as well, and his life is testament to the intersection of the struggles. The March on Washington is one of the high points of the movement, and it's where there was a fervent belief that African-Americans too could be a part of American democracy. I call this strategy the "We are visible and many in numbers" strategy.
在時間軸上要看的下一個點是 1963 年在華盛頓的遊行。 這是個在民權運動中, 對後來影響深遠的事件, 在這個事件中非裔美籍群體 主張民權和經濟平等。 而這當然也是馬丁·路德·金 發表其著名的「我有個夢想」演講的地方。 可是,較少有人知道的是, 這個遊行是由一位叫 貝亞·德斯廷的人組織的。 貝亞是個公開的同性戀, 而他被認為是民權運動中 最傑出的一位策略家。 他之後也成為了一位 LGBT 權利的 激烈的倡導者,而他的一生 就是這些鬥爭交匯的證據。 華盛頓遊行 是民權運動的高點之一, 也是人們擁有熱切信念 「非裔美籍人也可以是 美國民主一部分」的時候。 我把這個策略稱為 「我們是不可忽視並且人數眾多」策略。
Some early gay activists were actually directly inspired by the march, and some had taken part. Gay pioneer Jack Nichols said, "We marched with Martin Luther King, seven of us from the Mattachine Society" -- which was an early gay rights organization — "and from that moment on, we had our own dream about a gay rights march of similar proportions." Several years later, a series of marches took place, each one gaining the momentum of the gay freedom struggle. The first one was in 1979, and the second one took place in 1987. The third one was held in 1993. Almost a million people showed up, and people were so energized and excited by what had taken place, they went back to their own communities and started their own political and social organizations, further increasing the visibility of the movement. The day of that march, October 11, was then declared National Coming Out Day, and is still celebrated all over the world. These marches set the groundwork for the historic changes that we see happening today in the United States.
一些早期的同性戀權利活動份子 真是直接地被這個遊戲所鼓舞, 而有些則直接參與了遊行。 同性戀的先驅,傑克·尼科爾斯說, 「我們七個來自於馬太辛協會的, 與馬丁·路德·金一起遊行」—— 這是早期的同性戀運動組織—— 「而從那一刻起,我們有了自己的夢想, 我們要有類似規模的同性戀權利的遊行。」 幾年後,一系列的遊行發生了, 每一個都得到了 同性戀自由權鬥爭的氣勢。 第一個在 1979 年, 而第二個發生在 1987 年。 第三個發生在 1993 年。 將近百萬人參與, 而人們被發生的事情 所激勵鼓舞, 他們回到自己的社區, 並開始了自己的政治 和社會組織, 進一步地提升了運動的能見度。 10 月 11 日當天, 後來被宣布為全國出櫃日, 在世界各地仍在被慶祝。 這些遊行為今天我們 在美國看到的歷史性變化 奠定了基礎。
And lastly, the "Loving" strategy. The name speaks for itself. In 1967, the Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia, and invalidated all laws that prohibited interracial marriage. This is considered one of the Supreme Court's landmark civil rights cases. In 1996, President Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA, and that made the federal government only have to recognize marriages between a man and a woman. In United States v. Windsor, a 79-year-old lesbian named Edith Windsor sued the federal government when she was forced to pay estate taxes on her deceased wife's property, something that heterosexual couples don't have to do. And as the case wound its way through the lower courts, the Loving case was repeatedly cited as precedent. When it got to the Supreme Court in 2013, the Supreme Court agreed, and DOMA was thrown out. It was incredible. But the gay marriage movement has been making gains for years now. To date, 17 states have passed laws allowing marriage equality. It's become the de facto battle for gay equality, and it seems like daily, laws prohibiting it are being challenged in the courts, even in places like Texas and Utah, which no one saw coming.
最後,是「愛」的策略。 這個名稱不言而喻。 1967 年,最高法院裁定 婁詠與維吉尼亞州訴訟, 令禁止跨種族婚姻 的法律通通無效。 這民權案件被認為是最高法院的 具有里程碑意義之一。 1996 年,克林頓總統簽署了 捍衛婚姻法案,也被稱為 DOMA, 這讓聯邦政府 只需認同一個男人 和一個女人之間的婚姻。 在美國訴溫莎案, 一名 79 歲的女同性戀者伊迪絲·溫莎 起訴聯邦政府, 因為她被迫支付 她已故妻子的財產房地產稅, 但異性戀夫婦卻不用這麼做。 當這繼續通過 下級法院, 婁詠訟案件被反覆引用作先例。 當它在 2013 年去到了最高法院, 最高法院同意了, DOMA 被定違憲。 這是令人難以置信。 而且同性婚姻運動 多年來一直在得收穫。 到目前為止,17 個州 已經通過法律允許婚姻平等。 同性戀平等成為 事實上的爭奪, 好像每天地, 禁止它的法律被在法庭上受到挑戰, 甚至在像德克薩斯州和猶他州的地方, 這是任何人都沒有人想過的事。
So a lot has changed since that night in 2008 when I felt torn in half. I did go on to make that film. It's a documentary film, and it's called "The New Black," and it looks at how the African-American community is grappling with the gay rights issue in light of the gay marriage movement and this fight over the meaning of civil rights. And I wanted to capture some of this incredible change that was happening, and as luck or politics would have it, another marriage battle started gearing up, this time in Maryland, where African-Americans make up 30 percent of the electorate. So this tension between gay rights and civil rights started to bubble up once again, and I was lucky enough to capture how some people were making the connection between the movements this time. This is a clip of Karess Taylor-Hughes and Samantha Masters, two characters in the film, as they hit the streets of Baltimore and try to convince potential voters.
從 2008 年,我覺得自己 被撕成兩半那晚上, 之後發生了很多變化。 我的確拍了那部電影。 是一部紀錄片, 稱為《新的黑種族 》, 它著眼於非洲裔美國人的社區 如何正在努力地面對同性戀權利問題, 在同性婚姻運動和 這場公民權利戰鬥的的含義。 我亦想捕捉 一些不可思議地正在發生的變化, 正如運氣或政治, 另一個婚姻保衛戰已開始摩拳擦掌, 這次在馬里蘭州, 那裡的非裔美國人佔全體選民的30%。 這同性戀權利和公民權利 之間的緊張局勢再次開始沸騰, 我很幸運地捕捉到了 有些人如何在這一次的運動之間 注意到聯繫。 這是卡勒斯•泰勒-休斯 和薩曼莎•瑪絲特,在片中的兩個角色, 他們去到巴爾的摩的街道上, 試圖說服有潛在性的選民。
(Video) Samantha Masters: That's what's up, man, this is a righteous man over here. Okay, are you registered to vote?
(視頻)薩曼莎•瑪絲特: 你們好嗎?這有個正直的人。 你登記投票了嗎?
Man: No. Karess Taylor-Hughes: Okay. How old are you?
男子:沒有。 卡勒斯:好吧。你多大了?
Man: 21. KTH: 21? You gotta get registered to vote.
男子:21。 卡勒斯:21?你必註冊投票。
We got to get you registered to vote.
我們得讓你註冊投票。
Man: I ain't voting on no gay shit.
男子:我不要投什麼爛同性戀的票。
SM: Okay, why? What's up? Man: I ain't with that.
薩曼莎:好吧,為什麼呢?是怎樣? 男子:因為我不是啊。
SM: That's not cool.
薩曼莎:這樣不酷。
Man: What made you be gay? SM: So what made you be straight?
男子:是什麼讓你變成同性戀? 薩曼莎:那是什麼讓你異性戀?
So what made you be straight? Man 2: You can't answer that question. (Laughter)
你為什麼是異性戀? 男子2:你回答不出這個答案。 (眾笑)
KSM: I used to not have the same rights as you, but I know that because a black man like yourself stood up for a woman like me, I know that I've got the same opportunities. So you, as a black man, have the opportunity to stand up for somebody else. Whether you're gay or not, these are your brothers and sisters out here, and they need you to represent.
卡勒斯:我以前沒有跟你一樣的權利, 但我知道有因為有你這樣的黑人男子 支持像我一樣的女人, 我知道我有同樣的機會。 所以,你,作為一個黑人男子, 有機會站出來為別人。 無論你是同性戀與否, 在這裡的都是你的兄弟姐妹, 他們需要你來代表。
Man 2: Who is you to tell somebody who they can't have sex with, who they can't be with? They ain't got that power. Nobody has that power to say, you can't marry that young lady. Who has that power? Nobody.
男子2:誰有資格告訴你 不可以跟誰發生性關係, 不能與誰在一起? 他們沒有這權力。 沒有人有權力說,你不能娶那位小姐。 誰擁有這種權力?沒有人。
SM: But you know what? Our state has put the power in your hands, and so what we need you to do is vote for, you gonna vote for 6.
薩曼莎:但是你知道嗎? 我們的國家已把權力放在你的手中, 我們需要你做的就是投票, 投票給6。
Man 2: I got you.
男子2:我挺你們。
SM: Vote for 6, okay? Man 2: I got you.
薩曼莎:投票給6,好嗎? 男子2:我挺你。
KSM: All right, do y'all need community service hours? You do? All right, you can always volunteer with us to get community service hours. Y'all want to do that? We feed you. We bring you pizza.
卡勒斯:好吧,你們都需要做社區服務嗎? 要?好吧,你可以隨時來當我們的志工 可以算社區服務的時數。 你們都願意這樣做? 我們有吃的,會給你比薩。
(Laughter) (Applause)
(笑聲)(鼓掌)
Yoruba Richen: Thank you. What's amazing to me about that clip that we just captured as we were filming is, it really shows how Karess understands the history of the civil rights movement, but she's not restricted by it. She doesn't just limit it to black people. She sees it as a blueprint for expanding rights to gays and lesbians. Maybe because she's younger, she's like 25, she's able to do this a little bit more easily, but the fact is that Maryland voters did pass that marriage equality amendment, and in fact it was the first time that marriage equality was directly voted on and passed by the voters. African-Americans supported it at a higher level than had ever been recorded. It was a complete turnaround from that night in 2008 when Proposition 8 was passed. It was, and feels, monumental. We in the LGBT community have gone from being a pathologized and reviled and criminalized group to being seen as part of the great human quest for dignity and equality. We've gone from having to hide our sexuality in order to maintain our jobs and our families to literally getting a place at the table with the president and a shout out at his second inauguration. I just want to read what he said at that inauguration: "We the people declare today that the most evident of truths, that all of us are created equal. It is the star that guides us still, just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall."
柔露芭•里真:謝謝。 令人驚嘆的是, 我們拍的短片捕捉到, 卡勒斯果然是 如何理解民權運動的歷史, 但她不受它限制著。 她不只是限制它於黑人。 她認為這是一個藍圖, 用來擴大同性戀者的權利。 也許是因為她年輕,25歲左右, 能夠更容易地做到這一點, 但事實是,美國馬里蘭州的選民 一起通過婚姻平等的修正, 並事實上這是第一次 婚姻平等直接 讓選民表決通過。 非裔美國人展現出 比以往更高的支持。 這跟2008 年 8 號提案通過 那天晚上的結果全然不同, 那感覺是,巨大的。 我們 LGBT 社群已經從一個 被病理化、被唾罵 和刑事犯罪化, 到被視為人追求尊嚴和平等的 偉大的一部分。 我們經歷了從隱藏我們的性取向, 以保持我們的工作和家庭, 到與總統同一個平台 和在他的第二次 就職典禮被提起。 我想讀他 在那就職典禮的演講: 「我們今天宣布, 最明顯的事實, 即是我們所有人都是平等的。 這仍是指導我們的明燈, 正如它指導我們祖先 通過塞內卡瀑布、 塞爾瑪和石牆。」
Now we know that everything is not perfect, especially when you look at what's happening with the LGBT rights issue internationally, but it says something about how far we've come when our president puts the gay freedom struggle in the context of the other great freedom struggles of our time: the women's rights movement and the civil rights movement. His statement demonstrates not only the interconnectedness of those movements, but how each one borrowed and was inspired by the other. So just as Martin Luther King learned from and borrowed from Gandhi's tactics of civil disobedience and nonviolence, which became a bedrock of the civil rights movement, the gay rights movement saw what worked in the civil rights movement, and they used some of those same strategies and tactics to make gains at an even quicker pace.
但我們知道,並非一切都是完美的, 尤其是你可以看到發生在 國際性的同性戀權利的問題上, 但看我們已經走了這麼多遠, 因為當我們的總統 已將爭取同性戀自由的鬥爭 和這個時代其他偉大的自由鬥爭景況 相提並論:如女權運動 和民權運動。 他的演講不僅表明 這些運動是互相聯繫, 而且指出這些運動 怎樣互相借取靈感。 正如馬丁·路德·金 借用甘地的公民抗命 和非暴力戰術, 成為了民權運動的基石, 同性戀權利運動看到了 在民權運動裡有效的是什麼, 他們亦使用了一些相同的 策略和戰術 以更快的速度收益。
Maybe one more other reason for the relative quick progress of the gay rights movement. Whereas a lot of us continue to still live in racially segregated spaces, LGBT folks, we are everywhere. We are in urban communities and rural communities, communities of color, immigrant communities, churches and mosques and synagogues. We are your mothers and brothers and sisters and sons. And when someone that you love or a family member comes out, it may be easier to support their quest for equality. And in fact, the gay rights movement asks us to support justice and equality from a space of love. That may be the biggest, greatest gift that the movement has given us. It calls on us to access that which is most universal and most intimate: a love of our brother and our sister and our neighbor. I just want to end with a quote by one of our greatest freedom fighters who's no longer with us, Nelson Mandela of South Africa. Nelson Mandela led South Africa after the dark and brutal days of Apartheid, and out of the ashes of that legalized racial discrimination, he led South Africa to become the first country in the world to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation within its constitution. Mandela said, "For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."
也許同性戀權利運動 相對快速的進步 有更多其他原因。 然而我們很多人仍然生活在 種族隔離的空間, 同志朋友們,我們是無處不在的。 我們在城市社區 和農村社區, 有色人種社區、移民社區, 教堂和清真寺和猶太教堂。 我們是你的母親、 兄弟姐妹和兒子。 而當有你愛的人 或家庭成員出櫃, 支持他們追求平等可能會更容易。 事實上,同性戀權利運動 請我們從愛的起點, 支持正義和平等。 這可能是該運動給了我們 最大、最偉大的禮物。 它要求我們去獲得這最普遍 和最親密的事情: 愛我們的兄弟姐妹, 我們的鄰居。 我想引用一個 已離我們而去的 偉大自由戰士,南非的曼德拉的名句 來結束。 曼德拉在種族隔離的 黑暗和殘酷的之後領導南非, 走出合法種族歧視的灰燼, 他帶領南非成為世界上第一個國家, 在其憲法中禁止 基於性取向的歧視。 曼德拉說: 「獲得自由不僅是擺脫一個人的枷鎖, 而是活在一個尊重 和提高他人自由的生活方式。」
So as these movements continue on, and as freedom struggles around the world continue on, let's remember that not only are they interconnected, but they must support and enhance each other for us to be truly victorious.
因此,當這些活動不斷進行, 世界各地爭取自由鬥爭在繼續, 讓我們記住它們不僅是相互連接, 它們亦必須彼此扶持和增強 來讓我們得到真正的勝利。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)