[ladysycamore]

While I was on an Anne Rice fan newsgroup, the following transcript was posted (it was a phone message from the author):

"Hello Guys,

This is nearing the end of February 2004. This is an extemporaneous message and
probably won't appear in this form on my website. I will correct this in the
near future with a longer message after I've had a chance to correct my
thoughts in writing, but I felt it was important to make these two statements
now. First I want to thank you for all of your messages and I want to thank you
for the letters that I've been getting about Blood Canticle and the book, all
of that is very much appreciated. Now, let me go on to the issues at hand. I
think that the President of the United States has made a dreadful mistake in
asking for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a
woman. This is a terrible error and should be protested in letters to your
congressmen and letters to the White House. Gay marriage, or marriage between
people of the same gender, is part of the civil rights revolution that has been
going on for almost 200 years. That revolution has seen an end to slavery, it
has seen the end of segregation in this country, it has seen the accomplishment
of the vote for women, it has seen equal rights for women, and now we are
moving on to see equal rights for gay people. This is inevitable and this is
important and this is the most important revolution of our time. We cannot have
a step backwards by having an amendment to the constitution that discriminates
against people and denies them their rights. The idea that gay marriage is a
threat to heterosexual marriage is preposterous. The problem just doesn't
exist, and better people than I have made that statement and it is really true.
Once we accepted gay people, once we accepted the fact that they can be
teachers, they can be soldiers, they can be part of our community, they can be
bishops, they can be part of us, as I've said, the die was cast, they have to
have equal rights. We have to realize that we have accepted them, that we have
opened our arms to them as a community, that we recognize now that they want to
be part of the community. How in the world can we say that they cannot sanctify
their unions? These people want to step up before God and the tribe, before
their kith and their kin and they want to take vows. This is a good thing and
should be rewarded. Heterosexuals have made a mockery of marriage anyway. They
have done it with rapid-fire divorces in Las Vegas and Mexico, they have done
it with TV shows that focus on marriage as commercial entertainment, they have
done it with no-fault divorce, they have done it with people who get married
three and four and five times, they have done it in every conceivable way. To
act as if heterosexual marriage was some sort of sacrosanct institution that
has not already been weakened from all sides is utterly preposterous and these
gay people are good people. We as Christians, as Jews, as Buddhists, as Hindus,
as Islamic's, we have to open our arms to them, we have to recognize that they
want to be full-fledged members of our community. We have to do this and again
it is part of the civil rights revolution that has been going on for a long
time. We are certainly not going to be able to take backwards steps in this. We
have to realize that what is being done in San Francisco is a laudable thing.
We have to remember the antisegregation days and how people spoke-out against
the segregation laws and did things that became part of history. The same is
happening now with regard to gay marriage and gay rights. It's very
significant."

*applauds* Well said!