I was disappointed at first when I heard that Rick Warren was going to speak. I was more than offended at being compared to a pedophile or someone who practices incest. But then Mellissa Etheridge reached out to him. They got together and he invited her to his church and she invited him to her house for dinner with her wife and their kids. Warren ended up taking some anti-gay stuff off of his website and apologized for his remarks. Melissa Etheridge suggested that LGBT people volunteer at the Warren church with their AIDS programs so that the congregants wouldn’t be afraid of gay people and vice versa. I think that he was very conscious of being inclusive.

I think that this whole controversy with Rick Warren might have started a new dialogue and that is one way that people change. It is hard to hate a group once you interact with someone from that group as human beings. If everyone held onto their biases we’d be in bad shape and not have come as far as we have. Besides I remember when if they found out you were gay, you lost your job, and even arrested and if you were caught in a gay place your name was put in the paper. No one would have even dared to protest Rick Warren then.