Something special just happened in Glasgow. Reeeaal special.
And it doesn’t require you to care about sports concerts.
The host of the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony, John Barrowman, kissed a guy. He kissed a guy, took his hand, and ran through a crowd of people dressed in denim, tartan, and bridal veils as confetti rained down on them.
Aww, just watch it for yourself.
Barrowman (who plays Captain Jack in Doctor Who, for those playing at home) is a married man. He married his husband, Scott Gill, last year.
But, because he’s an excellent human, he wants the right to marry the person you love extended to everyone. He wants same-sex marriage legalised across the globe, and if he has to dress in a purple tartan suit to achieve that beautiful goal, then gosh darn it, he will.
Unlike, oh, I don’t know, the governments of most countries currently competing in the games. In 42 countries out of the 53 competing, it’s still illegal to marry someone of the same sex. That includes Australia, obviously.
That one kiss has sparked a campaign to get same sex equality on the global agenda. And at a sports concert! Here are some of the glorious responses:
It’s illegal to be gay in the vast majority of Commonwealth member states #Glasgow2014 pic.twitter.com/d9h66KnCfa
— Tim Montgomerie (@TimMontgomerie) July 23, 2014
Well done Scotland. John Barrowman in a same-sex kiss during the opening ceremony. Small, but significant act. #CommonwealthGames
— SimonNRicketts (@SimonNRicketts) July 23, 2014
John Barrowman opening the #CommonwealthGames with a gay kiss? Scotland, you wonderful, wonderful country! What an introduction.
— Lucy Goacher (@LucyMGoacher) July 23, 2014
That’s the power of a kiss.
The more times we see people of the same sex make out, the better. Every make-out session caught on camera chips away at homophobia. Here are some other important gay kisses, starting with American football player Michael Sams.
Top Comments
Gotta love John Barrowman..............he played the very dashing Captain Jack in Dr WHO and of course TORCHWOOD and his character was actually Bi-Sexual in that, but us geeky fans know him to be GAY - and that's just lovely.
I love the kind of innocense in those images above - I can only assume that people who take umbrage & go all crazy about them have deeper issues of their own. The fuss they make kind of "gives the game away" and the presumption that it's their business what it is other adults do with their genitals in private - really is laughable.
"Marriage" was contrived for fairly cynical reasons in past centuries - to strengthen the ties between royal houses, or tribes or families of wealth.
Women were (and often still are) chattels to be exchanged for money or land or cattle (for eg)......in fact, women only rarely had a say in it......in some cultures today a 9 year old child can be "married off" to an old old man for social ties - a despicable example of sanctioned child abuse.
Marriage for love is a fairly recent event historically but at least it's evolving into something potentially admirable.........and marriage between a man & a woman (only ) is a religious construct - not applicable to everyone .........it seems that marriage between same-sex couples is a natural progression in our society's evolution.
Captain Jack wasn't bisexual - he called himself try-sexual (he would try anything once!)
I thought Capt. Jack also called himself 'omni-sexual'.
Marriage by definition is a union between a man and a woman, just saying.
Because the definition of a word has never ever been changed to reflect new usage. Nu-uh, never. And no society ever changes their laws to reflect changes in society, nope.
They've just added the words "totes" and "amazeballs" to the dictionary, I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to change the definition of the word marriage.