We should all believe in equality for all, by Leah Remini

In 2008, in response to the passage of Proposition 8, @adambouska and partner @jeffparshley started the @noh8campaign to take a stand against discrimination.

Now, 11 years later, the #NOH8 Campaign has grown to fight against bullying of all kinds.

I am honored to add my face (and my voice) to this movement.

The message of 'No Hate' should be embraced and spread- not only on a legislative level, but also in our everyday interactions. We should all believe in equality for all, the right to marry who you want to marry, to be who you were born to be, to have access to health care, to education, to work, to be protected under the law, to opportunity, a chance for a better life… to have the same rights as anyone. It should be our core belief that all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, should be able to exercise their full human rights, and no one should be discriminated against, bullied and attacked for who they are.

We must start thinking in these terms. We must protect those who need us.

I am lucky enough to be able to give a voice to those who no longer wanted to believe in Scientology. They have a right NOT to believe, to speak out against being abused, being molested, to being raped, yet the brave who have spoken out have been systemically attacked & bullied by a well-funded, well organized 3 billion dollar cult hiding behind the First Amendment. Scientology is in fact a bigoted, racist, for-profit business pretending to be an innocuous religion. And they have been allowed to spew their hate on social media and the web, simply because no one wants to fight Scientology’s bullying tactics.

I am also proud to be an ambassador for CHILD USA, the leading non-profit think tank working to end child abuse and neglect in the United States.  CHILD USA engages in high-level legal, social science, and medical research and analysis to derive the best public policies to end child abuse and neglect.

In addition, CHILD USA is researching the negative health effects of children who are subjected to so-called “gay conversion therapy,” which is intended to “fix” their sexual orientation. This supposedly therapeutic approach has been uniformly rejected and discredited by every leading medical organization and has been banned in 20 states.

People and organized hate groups like to creatively hide behind the First Amendment and social media platforms allow them to spread their messages of hate.

But we can do something about it.

We can all do our part to know the difference between an opinion and truly harmful/hateful words that can lead to harmful and hateful actions.

We have a responsibility to know that negative & hateful words can and do lead to unfortunate outcomes for those targeted. Not only that, hateful words can greatly affect someone who is already dealing with trauma and depression and you just have no idea how hard someone can take your “opinion”. We are all dealing with something, we need more leaders, not more followers. We do not need more pack mentality, we need more compassion and more empathy.

This is not a “them” issue, it’s an “us” issue: these are our sons and daughters, our sisters and brothers, and we all should be able to relate to and support the message of NOH8.

Adam and Jeff were just two people who thought “maybe we can do something about it” and did. They represent the power that one can possess to fight discrimination, bigotry, racism and inequality.

No matter what issue you are passionate about, know that your voice can lead to positive change. Even if it just starts with you.
We are all part of the bigger picture, called Humanity.

#NOH8

~Leah Remini