John Barrowman receiving the Human Rights Campaign award

[dieastra]

Some friends here know that I recently struggled a bit with my love for John Barrowman, you know how it is, little things start to grate, and you start to wonder about some of his decisions and general over the top behavior (I'm still not over that weird stripey suit with short pants he wore when presenting an award show). But then he goes and does something awesome and I am back.

Today he got the Human Rights Campaign award for being out and proud and helping the community in every way possible. I hadn't known that he actually helped shaping UK laws (I only knew that they changed the music charts counting system when he started to sell his CDs at QVC). That's pretty big. Here is the video of his acceptance speech and it is a really good one. This is why we love him:

https://www.facebook.com/GayStarNews/videos/1184590711617244/

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Comments

[arashinoookami]

Wow, I never new he was so active in the gay community either! I think his character in Torchwood was one of the first openly gay/ bi characters I saw in a (relatively) mainstream tv series.

[chamilet]

And now I need to go and find the video of Scott he's talking about.

[bk_forever]

JB isn't perfect, he doesn't always get things right, but watching this made me wish there were more people willing to stand up and say "This is who I am, I'm proud to be who I am, and I won't back down, no matter what anyone says." He deserves that award, and I admire him so much for all he's done to make the world a fairer place. He's an inspiration.

[owensheart.livejournal.com]

What a lovely speech

[quarryquest.livejournal.com]

I never knew this about John and am impressed to see him doing the standing up and being counted. I remember him starting out in the West End when I knew people there and AIDS was decimating everything. I'm glad John was sensible enough not to catch anything and survive all that. We lost a lot of people who were gay and out but we didn't like or dislike them any more because of who they were. This was despite some of the things people said.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

He really is an exceptional man!

[cowgrrl.livejournal.com]

What a great speech. I'm proud to be part of his "team"!

[niviene.livejournal.com]

Well I just learned something...didn't know he was changing UK laws either...he's making a difference!

[alumfelga.livejournal.com]

I didn't know he lost his job because he was openly gay, that's horrible. He's right: we have to fight back and speak back when someone says we're not allowed to be ourselves. It's good there are people like John who do whatever they can to change the world. Wonderful speech and well deserved award.