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They're Wrong, You're Right! Accepts Human Rights Campaign Award after Quitting Scouts 'Diversity Isn't just being Politically Correct, It is Who We Are' Human Rights Campaign
"Once upon a time I was a Jewish kid growing up, alive and alone, in an all Gentile neighborhood. And mostly in school I experienced "exclusion" from many other kids my age who only knew what a Jew was from what their parents told them, what their friends said or popular negative stereotypes. "So when I joined the Boy Scouts of America I felt that I had found a safe haven, away from all the teasing and all the taunting. We were all from different areas in my hometown so there were Asians scouts and African-American scouts. There were several Native American scouts, and we all lived and we all achieved together. I even became an Eagle Scout - which made my parents so very proud of me. "But for me, the greatest value of Scouting was that Scouting created opportunities for me to become proud of myself and it has done this for tens of thousands of boys across a century and a quarter. And maybe most importantly, it was through the Boy Scouts of America - as I was trying out for a merit badge in photography - that I actually discovered my passion for filmmaking. That's exactly how I got started. Scouting gave me an amazing opportunity and it was the beginning of my personal yellow brick road. "For most of my life, I have been a passionate advocate of Scouting and I served on the National Board for years until the Supreme Court Case of Dave versus the Boy Scouts of America, where I realized something that I had not been very aware of: that you could be black and white, Hispanic and Asian, Native American, Jewish, Catholic, Islamic - but you couldn't get in to the scouts if you were gay. "I know it's tough just being a kid trying to find acceptance and trying to accept yourself. And kids who grew up gay, no matter what the circumstances they grow up in, the culture is constantly telling them that something is wrong with them, as they struggle to find out who they are. So I quit the Boy Scouts. I resigned my commission, which I know is one of the reasons you're that honoring me tonight. "On the one hand, I am honored and grateful to receive this award, so I want to thank the Human Rights Campaign and Elizabeth Birch, and each and every one of you who came here tonight. "On the other hand, it is a statement, I think, about our society when awards are given for something as basic as human rights. In Hollywood, awards have traditionally been given for achievements - for outstanding achievements - and in my opinion, observing common humanity and decency should not be extraordinary. It should be an everyday occurrence, as natural as all the things we do without thinking. Supporting causes like the Human Rights Campaign isn't difficult - and it's not even brave - it's mandatory because everyday we wake up in a country that presumes basic liberty and freedom. And you are making these presumptions a reality all across the country and around the world. "I'd just like to say, quitting the Boy Scouts was probably one of the most painful experiences I've ever had to endure. But they are wrong and you are right. We are right and we have never been more right than we are right now, in this country and at this time. "When I spoke about hate crimes before Congress in 1994, I was compelled to say that, "empathy is a required element of morality." Fear and closed-mindedness breed judgment and they breed hate. To accept a situation in which a land so rich in culture, so fortunate, and so diverse could be anything but a haven for individuality and tolerance is unthinkable. "Because after all, diversity is not, as some would have it, a politically correct codeword. Diversity is who we are. It captures our condition as a people and it describes us as a nation; it is the essence of our best aspirations, and it is what we must finally stand for in a world where democracy and equality are both uncommon and threatened where they already exist. "But I am not totally naïve. The unthinkable shadows our lives everyday. You know, hatred has us in its crosshairs - even in this country and even in Montgomery County. "A few people - and you know, it only takes a few - who are viciously proactive in their hatred. Their fears - irrational fears - and their ignorance compound themselves into sudden violence. That is why the Holocaust occurred, and that is why Matthew Shepard was murdered. "In fact, it is not stretching the point to say that Matthew Shepard was killed by precisely the same impulse that gave rise to the Holocaust. We should not forget - in fact I think we are all obligated to remember - that the Nazis did not only send Jews to the death camps. They also sent Gypsies and Jehovah's Witnesses and homosexuals to the camps. Each of them were marked, as the Jews were, for humiliation and then final destruction. "Those of us who do not hate, therefore, have an obligation to translate our values into behavior as well. That is why in 1994 I established the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation - which was to overcome prejudice, intolerance and bigotry and the suffering they cause, through the educational use of our Foundation's visual history testimonies. "These testimonies - testimonies of Gypsies and Jehovah's Witnesses and homosexuals as well as Jews - are now being used in schools in this country and in libraries and museums around the entire world. They remind us gently but persistently not only of the futility of hate, but of the necessity of love which Congressman Gephardt spoke so eloquently and passionately about tonight. "I would so love to live in a world, as I currently do in the world of the arts, where the only currency is talent. Human Rights Campaign - your campaign - is a beacon to the world. And the signal that you must always send is that there is nothing more powerful than a human life - celebrated in all of its forms and all lifestyles. "I am so proud to be here as an artist, and as a father and an American - always dreaming of the day when our future will echo all of these promises. "It's really interesting as I worked my way through my career - as my children might say, unfortunately with no end in sight, because my kids want dad to be home more than out in the world making movies - I find that our world is expanding to all of our needs. I really feel that the changes are just out there. If I would sing, which I know you would all love me to do, I would be Richard Beymer, right now with that great song from West Side Story - something's coming, something good. "But I absolutely believe, that due to your incredible work here, that all of us are just around the corner from one of the biggest breakthroughs in tolerance education and human understanding that this world has ever seen. And I will always remember that I was here to share these brief moments with you at the very beginning of what is truly going to be an equal future. "Thank you." |
Director Steven Spielberg accepted an award from the Human Rights Campaign