Sally Field delivered an impassioned speech on behalf of her openly gay son when accepting the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) Ally for Equality Award in Washington D.C. this weekend.
After being introduced by her son Sam Greisman, the visibly emotional Oscar-winning actress said, "He grew up wanting to be just like his big brothers -- athletic and rambunctious, not to mention a little bit macho." She went on to note, "But Sam was different, and his journey to allow himself what nature intended him to be was not an easy one. As his mother, I consider it one of the great privileges of my life to be part it." (Watch the full speech, along with Greisman's introduction, above)
Noting that she hadn't addressed her son's sexuality in public before ("It's Sam's business and not mine"), the star of "Steel Magnolias" and "Brothers and Sisters" added, "There are so many children who struggle to understand and embrace their sexuality in families who do not welcome them, with parents that somehow find it acceptable to shut them out their hearts and their homes, and that I find unacceptable."
But she drew the biggest cheers after she told the HRC crowd, "You've changed and are changing the lives of little boys and girls who realize somewhere along the way they're just different from their other brothers and sisters...and so the f**k what?
Greisman, an intern at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) blog Towleroad, said of Mom, "Being gay was just one more thing she loved about me." Noting that Field's new West Village apartment is just a 10-minute walk from his own, he quipped, "She couldn't be more supportive of me...if anything, I wish she was a little less supportive of me."
Before You Go
