“Love has to prevail, really. Whatever shape or form, I think love has to prevail. If you’re born with a disability, if you have a child with a disability, if you’re born with same-sex attraction, if your daughter comes out or your son, then just love them.
Nobody wants to be different but we have to embrace different people because that’s society, that’s the world. Those different people they’re not going anywhere.
So you can say it’s illegal, you can make them feel awful, but somewhere in the world another gay boy or girl will be born. Somewhere in the world someone will be born with no limbs. Do you know what I mean?
Life goes on and it’s silly in this day and age when we have countries that are still in the stone age, as we say, 100 years behind. But I’m just a horse rider. Promise.”— Out equestrian Lee Pearson, asked what his message to the LGBTQ community is after winning the gold medal in the Grade II individual test in dressage at the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo. This was Pearson’s 12th gold medal since his Paralympic debut in 2000.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Fahd
Very nice and I´m glad he took the time to say what every athlete from a relatively privileged free country should say. There was some disturbing footage from these Olympics involving animal cruelty among equestrians or horse riders, as he puts it. I´m wondering if there needs to be some rethinking of the place of horse riding sports in the Olympics.
HenryHawke
More profound and heartfelt words I don’t recall ever hearing. (Okay. Reading.) I’d like to see this in a major publication where the religionists and right wing political types can read it. I think they’d find it difficult to refute.
JB
Why is he comparing gay people to those with physical handicaps or so-called “birth defects”??? What’s that about?
Openminded
He was pointing out that no matter how you are born, gay or with mental or physical differences from the expected norm, that you should be accepted and loved all the same. If you are trying to say he implied being gay is a birth defect, then you need to reread the story and take the time to comprehend what he says. Personally, I think he is spot on.
Thad
Oh! He DID! Congratulations to Lee Pearson and horse on a great job!
ScottOnEarth
Interesting that he’s equating LGBTQ people to handicapped people. Jesus, talk about tone-deaf “support.”
Openminded
That is not at all what he said. Would you think he was implying all LGBTQ people were black if he had stated black people equally deserve to be loved and respected? He simply included 2- different groups of people who have historically been looked over and neglected, or worse.