The Youngest LGBT Political Activist?

by Michael Jones · 2009-05-24 22:22:00 UTC
Topics:

Ethan McNameeTalk about inspiring...change.org contributor Dave Hershey has a post below about a nine-year-old who might be the youngest LGBT political activist out "there.  His message?  Well, all Ethan McNamee wants to say is "Marriage equality now."

Thanks to Dave Hershey for the guest post below...

Out of the Mouths of Babes!!!

Sure we have heard this phrase before, but Ethan McNamee deserves our special recognition. I know, I know! Who is Ethan McNamee, right? Well he is a nine-year old third grader from Denver, Colorado who has become an overnight celebrity.

Ethan is possibly the youngest political activist and community organizer his home state and perhaps the country has known. So what did he do? He organized a marriage equality rally in Denver.

According to news channel KMGH report he overheard one student tell another that "if a gay person kissed you, you could die." He stood up to this falsehood, and when he found out that a gay couple in his neighborhood couldn't get married he requested to change his project to organizing a marriage equality rally. According to Pink News over 200 people turned out to show their support.

Of course, there are criticisms about him being "brainwashed" and "indocrinated," but he insists that it is and was 100% his idea. So there you have it folks, "From the Mouths of Babes!" Kudos to young Ethan for being a voice of reason, even if our politicians don't recognize that equality for all citizens should be the real voice of reason. I truly hope that he knows that the stand he has made is not the popular one to make, but it should serve a very great lesson to us all; if he can stand up for what is right at the age of nine, as adults, so can the rest of us.

Thank you Ethan McNamee! We applaud you not only for your courage, but your determination in seeing that this country fulfills its promise to treat all of its citizens equal under the law.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
PREVIOUS STORY:
We Lack a National Political Voice for LGBT Rights
NEXT STORY:
Bullied high schooler convinces MPAA to change ‘Bully’ rating to “PG-13”

COMMENTS (1)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.