Tom Ammiano and Brad Pitt

Pub date July 7, 2011
SectionPolitics Blog

That’s just the headline to get your attention. Actually, Tom made a great, impassioned speech on the floor of the state Assembly about Sen. Mark Leno’s SB 48, which would mandate that school textbooks include information on the historic role of LGBT people in the development of California. Seems like a no-brainer, but some of the Republicans were pretty awful about it, and there was a fair amount of talk about “sexual preference.”


So up stands Ammiano, who urges his colleagues: “Don’t live in a bubble and encourage me to live a lie because you aren’t confortable. …. I don’t want to be invisible in a textbook. I will not be erased.


“This is about education, about leveling the playing field. This isn’t about trivialization of a very important issue, a life-death issue for so many of us.


“And while I’m at it, let me correct something: My sexual orientation is gay. My sexual preference is Brad Pitt.”


One of the many reasons we love Tom.


Check out the video here.  Tom’s speech is at about 1:25.


The bill passed, 49-25.