HRC Blog

Post submitted by John McCarty, guest contributor

This Father’s Day I am not requesting gifts of ties, golf clubs or even familial peace. Instead I am asking for the dreams that I have for my daughter to no longer be blocked by bigotry.

Any partnership is difficult to maintain after the novelty has worn off and day-to-day life has taken over: job, finances, finding a parking place. For those who are demeaned to second-class citizenship because of whom they love, the path is complicated by intolerance.

My wish is for my daughter to find someone, regardless of gender, with whom to share her life. One who respects her as I do and is willing to share the joy, the mundane, the tears, the anger, and through it all still loves her.

And I wish the world would love and respect that commitment.

Many go through life struggling to find their identity. My wish is that now that she has found hers, she will find inner peace and hold true to that identity everyday.

I wish her perseverance as she navigates a journey to achieve full recognition of her rights.

And I wish us all a world in which sexual orientation or gender identity and expression is not a question of degrees of tolerance, but of acceptance.

This Father’s Day, I wish for equality for my daughter and for all of the LGBT community.

In the past year, so many dads have changed hearts and minds in favor of equality - simply by sharing their stories. Happy Father's Day, from HRC.