Daniel

I don't normally make posts giving praise to people whom i've never met before, feeling the way i do, but i can't really begin to explain how proud i am of a little guy called Daniel Leffew.

Regular readers of this blog may well recognise the Leffew name, because it's the family who i'm always ranting and raving over, about their contiued work to change minds and let people see what life is like for A) a married gay couple, who are with others, fighting for marriage equality and B) showing how adopted children can thrive by just being in a loving family, regardless of the sexuality of the parents, this has taken a weird change over the past few weeks for them all and has literally sent the Gay Family Values "brand" into a certain degree of fame that it's never been exposed to before.

If you subscribe to the video version of Life With Bev on youtube, then you'll remember that last year, i worked on a project which ended up with a film about the family being screened over in the UK. The film "The right to love : An american family" was a documentry film based around their lives and their struggle with gay rights and of course other area's of the gay community, like the teen suicide problem currently being delt with. If you've still not seen the film, click here to buy your own copy of the DVD.

After the film screenings died down and the film was made available on DVD for everyone, the family went back to their youtube channel and were posting the usual sort of video's that they do, which are filled with their views and opinions, with regular updates of what was going on in their lives, like Selina's birthday, Daniel's fencing battles and the video i most love, the "husband tag", which is where you get to see Jay and Bryan sat talking about when they met, what food jay likes / doesn't like etc.

That then changed with one special video.

As some of you may well be aware, the time has come around for prop 8 to be battled in the supreme court. While i don't know the inn's and out's of it all, i do know that this is a tense time for Jay and Bryan, along with other married gay couples and of course, those same sex couples who want to get married and have the same rights as their straight counter parts. Over the course of a week or so, Jay had said about how people should join them in the marches and posted a video with some details on of what people could do.

Then came Daniel's video.

Daniel, who's aged 12 don't forget, had written a letter to one of these judges after learning that he too had adopted a boy and a girl, like Daniel and Selina. The letter itself, could have just been sent to Justice Roberts (irony that he shares the same sirname as me right?) and nothing more been said about it, but of course the Gay Family Values way is to share with the viewers and readers these little things that happen.

Here's the video....

Kinda simple right?

Touched by Daniel's words?

You're not alone if you where. The view count for the video is off the chart at the moment, because the video is going viral as we speak. While per video, they're used to a few thousand views over time, this video spoke to alot of people and attracted alot of attention, but not just from the social media community. I have seen first hand how this video is changing peoples minds on a range of topics that this video doesn't even show.

There's also been interest from the media too, newspapers (and not just the gay community one's either) have written stories on the video and letter and of course... news channels have been calling too.

Check this out....

And how did Daniel's speech go infront of thousands of people?

For those with a trained eye like mine, you might be able to tell that Daniel isn't a roving expert at public speaches... but he's actually got it down almost to a T. Remembering to pause when the crowd cheer at something, smiling and of course, speaking with confidence (and lots of it when dealing with a crowed that big).

But why am i so happy over all this?

For years now, me and many others have come along this journey with the family, as they've opend the doors into their lives and minds. We've seen the high times and the low's, so in my mind and i know other's too, we're happy to see them being put a little more into the spotlight and getting some recognition for their work.

Daniel's letter is written brilliantly (I'm sure Bryan will agree with my thought that it's Bryan who's passed that on :P ) and speaks from Daniel's heart. The listener or reader can relate to what is said in different parts and i presume are left with the understanding of this boys hope of marriage equality being brought in.

When i was 12, i was either unhappy, because i was being forced to do homework (never wanted to do it and have still to date, never found the ability to want to do it either) or i was out playing on my bike seeing where it'd take me. I don't think i'd have had the ability to write a letter like Daniel has, i didn't know at that age who these political type figures where or what they did... what laws were even, yet having Jay and Bryan as parents, they don't hold much back from Daniel and Selina, so they've the perfect learning ground for understanding that letter's, phone calls etc, can all make abit of a difference in the world of politics and law.

Earlier today, i posted the video of Daniel's live speech on a gay website i use, it's a dating website, but has the forums, which are filled with anything from dating adverts to general interest. The video itself on the forums recieved some good comments off people, who were impressed that a 12 year old boy had more "balls" than them, for getting up and doing what he did.

Then i recieved an inbox message off someone, which took me a little by suprise.

This man is in a relationship with his partner and they have been talking about adopting for some time. I'd posted the video of what Daniel had done at the rally and it'd brought them both to tears. Over several messages, he explained to me that they could only imagine how proud Jay and Bryan must be and that they want to be able to feel that proud, so the video had given them a little nudge in the right direction and now they're going to look into adoption.

I was lucky enough to catch Jay on facebook the other night, so i sent him a message explaining how happy i was for them that not only was the video doing well, but that it was helping to change peoples minds. Then, i don't think either of us thought that within a week or so, Daniel would be stood on a stage, reading his letter out to 3,000 people... yet it happend.

As i put on facebook a few hours ago, you don't have to do loads in the world for your effect to be felt and i think that's true about this incident.

It's a letter. It's a letter that has pulled at the heart-strings of so many and let's just hope that the letter brings people to the gay family values youtube and lets them see what a gay family is. Let's hope that Daniel's heartfelt letter has been recieved and makes Justice Roberts think a little more about who might be affected by his decision.

So, if Daniel is reading....

Well done and thank you :)