Daniel Franzese: “So we’ve got marriage equality – what now?”
This is certainly a summer to remember! Marriage equality has been sweeping the world and here in the US, were all going wild with rainbow-filtered Facebook profile pics and Pinteresty frosted rainbow cakes with Instagrammy rainbow centres.
It all looks so beautiful – and it all tastes so delicious. “This is what we’ve been fighting for!” shouts the drag queen on the mic, rainbow cellophane confetti playing with the light as it falls onto her patriotic lace front. It’s humbling. It’s moving. It’s victorious.
The next day, we sit back with our bellies full of champion cake and sigh. So many of our queer ancestors bled for this moment. God heard our prayers. Our leaders are on our side. We have been heard. Let’s bask in this, shall we? Really soak it up. We are beginning a new future for our young LGBT brothers and sisters that is truly better than the reality we grew up in.
That work shouldn’t stop now though. I, for one, have a lot of fight left in me. There was enough anger and relentless defence built up in me to last until the marriage equality battle was won – and I thought it could take a lifetime. So now what do I do with it?
Well, I know we need to end HIV/AIDS. We have the tools right now to reduce the risk of HIV infection by 96%, with newly-approved preventive measures like the PrEP drug Truvada, and that is certainly something to fight for. I also know that we need to support the issues facing transgender people and learn to understand them and help them reach their goals. We must make sure LGBT people are treated fairly in the education, housing, employment and financial arenas.
Coming from an actor’s perspective, I see the gay glass ceilings cracking every day as more diversity appears on television year by year. We need to push Hollywood to accelerate this because the more accurate portrayals that we see of gay and lesbian people in the media – and even moreso, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive people – the more we allow people to learn about them and remove stigma.
We need to stop bullying, and we need to encourage our LGBT youth to hold their heads high. This starts with every child learning the importance of acceptance. We also need to make our voices heard in our communities and especially our churches (as both my Mom and I have said before).
We must continue to be exemplary parents, soldiers, teachers, doctors and other upstanding pillars of our LGBT family, while also keeping our edge and being the avant garde artists, poets, filmmakers, drag queens, performance artists and entertainers we’ve been throughout history.
We need to keep fighting for full equality and we need to do it fabulously and inventively. This has been such a proud year for us so far, and I’m proud I get to share it with all of you. Condragulations. Let’s continue to rise up to who we are.
Words by DANIEL FRANZESE
– Daniel Franzese is an actor of stage and screen best known for his performances in films like Mean Girls and for ordering pizza at 11pm. Online, his viral videos Please Go Home and Sh*t Italian Moms Say have reached millions of viewers worldwide. Follow him @Whatsupdanny on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr and on YouTube.com/MyMyMyTube. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California where he starred as #EDDIEBEAR on HBO’s LOOKING.
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