HUFFINGTON POST: Lydia Cornell, 'Too Close For Comfort' Star, Backs Gay Marriage
By
Glennisha Morgan
Reprinted from Apr 8, 2013, 06:22 PM EDT
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Updated Feb 2, 2016
Add Lydia Cornell to the growing list of gay marriage supporters in Hollywood. The star of 80's sitcom "Too Close For Comfort" and radio host has recently come out in support of marriage equality in a recent blog post.
As pointed out by Queerty, Cornell spoke of her lesbian sister not having a choice in her sexuality and how she's "heartsick at the bigotry" she sees in America.
She writes:
"My sister is gay, and she never made a choice, but that’s beside the point. The marriage contract is a private contract between two individuals. How does it hurt anyone to let two souls honor their monogamy by allowing them the sanctity and dignity of marriage, as other human beings have a right to? Isn’t this in the Bill of Rights?
I am heartsick at the bigotry I see in America today. I can’t believe my sister may never have the same rights I have! And furthermore, according to Suze Orman — as it stands now, civil unions do not permit the transfer of a deceased person’s estate to the partner. Next of ‘kin’ is first in line."
She then added, "Sexual immorality was not even on Christ’s radar, as was clear when the mob was stoning the prostitute: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
Cornell is among other stars such as Beyonce, Madonna, Snoop Lion, La La Anthony, Susan Olsen, and others who have recently sounded off in support of same-sex marriage.
Singer-actress Marie Osmond also subtly re-affirmed her support of marriage equality, pointing to her openly gay daughter Jessica in a poignant interview with Diane Sawyer.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/08/lydia-cornell-gay-marriage-_n_3038692.html?utm_hp_ref=entertainment&ir=Entertainment
This is a no-brainer
1. Gays exist. Gay people exist in society and in nature. This is not a choice. No one decides to be "straight" Whether one is gay or straight is not a decision that is consciously made.
2. Gays are human
3. Therefore gays deserve the same civil rights all humans have.
Why shouldn't Elton John be allowed to sanctify his life-partner relationship with a legitimate marriage ceremony?
Do you honestly think gay people don't exist? Do you think Elton John is just a court jester, trained seal — a musical genius-entertainer put on earth just for your listening pleasure? Does he have no right to a personal life? Is he a slave, here to simply entertain others with his musical genius? Why shouldn't Elton John be allowed to sanctify his life-partner relationship with a legitimate marriage ceremony? Why would you deny any human being the same rights you have? Why is his personal life your business? How arrogant! How inhumane!
Why Many "Old Testament" Christians Are Wrong on Gay Marriage
1. Christ said: "Leave judgment and vengeance to God.
2. Christ said: "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
2. Christ said: "My Kingdom is of the spirit, not the flesh. (Meaning he couldn't have cared less about human mortal laws, Kosher laws, laws of the flesh, having to do with sfood or clothing or sexuality. He had nothing to say about legalistic, pharisaical laws. All He cared about was "how much love is in our hearts; how we treat our fellow man. And how we treat the "least among you" (the poor, the widow, and the orphan.)
4. Christ brought the NEW LAW in the New Testament: the Law of Love. Read his Sermon on the Mount. In fact, without the New Law of Love, the Ten Commandments don't make much sense and are too hard to follow. Why not commit adultery? Why not kill? If you are motivated by loving your neighbor and your fellow man as much as you love yourself, you automatically won't want to kill or hurt anyone else.
5. Christ was never bothered by anything EXCEPT the pharisees (the religious leaders) and money-changers (greed.) The power brokers or religious leaders with their hypocritical, hollow, cruel laws and dogmatic rules that oppressed the poor. They took all the heart out of life. They made rules that hurt people, such as "No healing on the Sabbath. It offends God!" LOL. All Christ cared about was how you treated your neighbor, your fellow man and those less fortunate. Like a drop of water in the ocean, we are at one with Source of Love.
ON LOVE, MARRIAGE AND HOMOPHOBIA
The Supreme Court is considering weighing in on the issue of the legality of gay marriage. I cannot believe this is even a question!
This letter from my sister astounded me:
"I'm a little surprised to find that living in a climate of wider acceptance for same-sex relationships also makes a huge difference in my personal happiness level. In a hostile climate it really is challenging to sidestep the trap of internalized homophobia, and we fall into patterns that reinforce the stereotypes (e.g., gay relationships don't last).
Practically my whole life I have felt subtle, subconscious feelings of being less deserving of love and companionship because I'm not part of the "norm". So, normalizing same sex relationships to the point of pushing for equal marriage rights actually feels like the right thing to do - even though it's scary, and I've had mixed feelings about it, politically.
In truth, I guess it didn't seem important enough so long as I wasn't in a relationship I felt was worth fighting for. Or maybe I was simply resigned to settling for outsider status -- like a kid with her nose pressed up against the glass, outside looking in at all the happy couples, all the while covering up her wistfulness with a smug refusal to participate in the bourgeois dance of the "breeders". A rebel, not an outsider, or so I thought. As if that was going to get me anywhere!
I think maybe because of these subconscious beliefs I was (as many of us were) choosing to be in relationships that I knew were only temporary. As society moves toward embracing love and coupling and marriage for all, I think we'll see a healthier, stabilizing effect on society as a whole. Happy people make for a happy, productive society. None of us is free so long as some are still unfree, I think the saying goes - as in, life, liberty and the pursuit of said happiness.
Now that I'm getting happier and healthier and more emotionally sober I've been able to choose to let love in fully, to really allow myself to love and be loved unconditionally. It's a miraculous and beautiful journey - from darkness to light, from ignorance to self-knowledge. I know there are lots of haters out there, but the sole fact that as a society we are participating in a dialogue at all is eons from where we were when I first came out of the closet in 1978 - not to mention the pre-Stonewall days of the "love that dare not speak its name"."
The only "sin" is hating, judging, hurting, harming, throwing stones, and not being compassionate toward others. Love your neighbor as yourself. The only sin Christ spoke of was being unkind. The only other item he mentioned was DIVORCE. But you don't see good Christians outside of courthouses protesting the sin of divorce, do you?
IF YOU'RE AGAINST GAY MARRIAGE, JUST DON'T MARRY A GAY PERSON or WHY FALSE PROPHETS AND OTHER MISGUIDED "CHRISTIANS" ARE WRONG ON GAY MARRIAGE
This is an updated article from a spiritual political book I wrote, which will be released after the comedy books.
Chelsea Handler: "I have never been more proud of my LGBT friends and the beautiful families they're raising —- and I think it's time we all do what we can to get them equal rights already. "
First I have to tell you something my radio co-host Doug Basham said after he saw Katie Couric ask Sarah Palin about gay rights. Palin answered that one of her best friends is gay, and that her pal "made a choice that isn't a choice that I have made.” Basham said, “I wish Couric had asked Palin, 'Do you remember the exact moment you chose to become heterosexual?'"
My sister is gay, and she never made a choice, but that’s beside the point. The marriage contract is a private contract between two individuals. How does it hurt anyone to let two souls honor their monogamy by allowing them the sanctity and dignity of marriage, as other human beings have a right to? Isn’t this in the Bill of Rights? I am heartsick at the bigotry I see in America today. I can’t believe my sister may never have the same rights I have! And furthermore, according to Suze Orman — as it stands now, civil unions do not permit the transfer of a deceased person's estate to the partner. Next of "kin" is first in line.
After my Ann Coulter death threats and hate-mail settled down simply for defending the Golden Rule, one thing became clear: certain "Old Testament" Christians are obsessed with the sexual immorality of others — to the exclusion of any other sin, including their own sins of pride and judgment — which by the way, were the only sins Jesus ever cared about or actually mentioned! Sexual immorality was not even on Christ’s radar, as was clear when the mob was stoning the prostitute: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
I find it interesting that he did condemn divorce, but since divorce is rampant among most religious sects, even evangelicals, it's odd that you never see religious people picketing courthouses to abolish divorce :)
All this talk about Christ’s return and the "Rapture" misses the point entirely. I've prayed about this and been given a revelation of my own: when humans can love each other unconditionally — love their enemies and neighbors as themselves — then the so-called Rapture will happen. It will not be a big Broadway show; it will be a change in consciousness. This is the Second Coming. It will occur in the hearts of men.
The Ku Klux Klan also used the Bible to justify killing Blacks. Where are all the reasonable, sane people of faith who actually follow Christ’s teachings?
Maybe they don't realize that 'Christ' is the root of the word 'Christianity' because the vowel sounds are different! They often espouse the EXACT OPPOSITE of Christ’s teachings. If fundamentalists take the Bible literally, then why don’t they take Christ’s actual words literally?
There's a cartoon I saw shortly after the 2004 election: I can't remember the exact words, but two pot-bellied Rednecks are standing around drinking beer, happy with being red: "Well, my son lost his legs in Iraq, veteran benefits got cut, lost my pension plan to Enron, got laid-off down at the plant, they cancelled my health insurance, Bush vetoed stem cells which would have saved my daughter’s life from brain cancer -- BUT I'M SURE AS HELL GLAD THOSE TWO GAYS DOWN THE STREET CAN'T GET MARRIED!"
We’re a nation ruled by several opposing forces: the atheist, the optimist, the materialist — and of course, the idiot — that person inside all of us (or just fundamentalists and neocons) who choose to remain unconscious.
What is so strange is that modern-day fundamentalists often condone the death penalty quite casually, yet think fetal cells in a Petri dish are too sacred to be used for stem cell research in order to save lives! This seems highly immoral to me.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to be gay or lesbian in America today. There is a “Christian” group that has a website called "Godhatesfags.com" that displays an animated picture of Matthew Shepherd surrounded by flames, burning in hell. Shepherd was brutally murdered in Wyoming, the victim of a hate crime.
Instead of seeing the beauty and unique goodness of the gay person — his artistic gifts of design or dance, the sweetness of his spirit, his yearning to be accepted and to bury the agony of being bullied as a child or of being “born different" — the morally repulsed “Christian” chooses the easy way: hatred.
My son’s best friend and his brother are being raised by a gay male couple, who are scholars and wonderful parents. Both children are completely "straight" and have girlfriends already. The family considered moving to Canada out of fear. They are very afraid of the hateful Christian ruling elite in America. I can’t think of anything more un-Christlike than an intolerant “Christian.”
It saddens me that many in the religious right have taken their obsession with morality and their fear of Hollywood to such an extreme they've lost compassion for their fellow man. They have become homophobic, disdainful of the poor and cruel toward any human who does not meet their rigorous standards — while ignoring their own pride, the character flaw which annoyed Christ the most!
Intolerance is the easy way out, and many will go through this wide, broad gate. Very few will squeeze through the "narrow gate" of turning the other cheek and loving one's enemies. It's easy to judge others from a position of moral superiority; it's difficult to look kindly upon criminals, prisoners, "sinners." It's difficult to love "the other," as Christ commanded us to do. Most fundamentalist right-wing Christians these days refuse to look at their enemy as a whole human being. They are ruled by primitive fears that totally contradict Christ’s entire mission: to love one another for love casts out fear.
Some more notes..
The more one pushes something down, the more it rears its ugly head in inappropriate places; perversions appear. This explains why celibacy in priests acts like a pressure cooker, often resulting in crimes of molestation. Celibacy is unnatural; too much pent up desire perverts itself. Like Pandora’s box, whatever is taboo becomes irresistibly tempting. People will sneak out of their cages to experience the forbidden.
So the Puritan, guilt-ridden over his own uncontrollable urges, cannot live with himself. Unable to cut out his own base, lustful thoughts, he looks outside himself for someone to blame and project his guilt onto. The easiest way to ameliorate his shame is to broadcast the evil, project it onto others where he can externalize it, see it as separate from himself – and lash at it with swords. This way he can feel morally superior. It's a quick fix. He investigates it, dwells on its dark side, inflates its evil effects until evil is all he sees. He makes the gay person into an object of disgust.
__________________
As a culture we put so much emphasis on the body: on cellular substance of the fetus, the death and burial of a corpse, the saving of an unconscious sack of flesh that contains no life force or spirit, as in the case of Terry Shiavo. We are focused so exclusively on the letter, not the spirit; the style, not the substance; the right hat, not the heart, the ritual, not the meaning — and the flesh which can be wiped out so easily — that it must make me wonder: is flesh man’s most important quality?
At the risk of sounding like a crackpot, I have to say here that I no longer believe in the physical universe as being primary. The invisible harmony is what's real. In other words, the things I know are valuable and real are the things I can’t see with my eyes – the invisible qualities of love, truth, wisdom, soul, principle, thought, harmony, wisdom, compassion, beauty, strength and character – things that cannot be physically touched or scientifically proven.
As Emerson said: "this is a spiritual universe and thoughts rule the world."
________________
The more one pushes something down, the more it rears it head in inappropriate places; perversions appear. This explains why celibacy in priests acts like a pressure cooker, often resulting in crimes of molestation. Celibacy is unnatural; too much pent up desire perverts itself. Like Pandora’s box, whatever is taboo becomes irresistibly tempting. People will sneak out of their cages to experience the forbidden.
So the Puritan, guilt-ridden over his own uncontrollable urges, cannot live with himself. Unable to cut out his own lustful thoughts, he looks outside himself for someone to blame and project his guilt onto. The easiest way to ameliorate his shame is to broadcast the evil, project it onto others where he can externalize it, see it as separate from himself – and lash at it with swords. This way he can feel morally superior. It's a quick fix. He investigates it, dwells on its dark side, inflates its evil effects until evil is all he sees. He makes the gay person into an object of disgust.
Sorry this article was so long and repetitive. I had no idea I had pasted four articles together. This was a glitch. I removed the second half.
Thank you to:
Here is a reprint of my Huffington Post article on Gay Marriage:
