Having the Courage to Speak Out and Act Even When It's Unpopular

I have written a number of times about the phenomenon of basically good people failing to act when morality and decency argue for action and speaking out against injustice and prejudice. Too often it is easier - and safer - to do and say nothing. The fact that inaction may even be popular doesn't make it right. The bigotry that needs to be confronted may be racial bigotry such as what Atticus Finch confronted in To Kill A Mockingbird, anti-Semitic bigotry, anti-gay religious based bigotry and hate so widely disseminated by self-congratulatory "godly Christians, or the fear and prejudice of a strange and frightening disease. The truly brave and morally strong will act regardless of the potential negative personal consequences that may be entailed. A post at America Blog Gay looks at one such amazing individual: Elizabeth Taylor. Here are some post highlights:
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In 1986 and again in 1988, hundreds of thousands of Californians signed petitions to place initiatives on the ballot that would have mandated the quarantine of AIDS patients. Such was the homophobic hysteria surrounding AIDS when Elizabeth Taylor began planning her first AIDS fundraiser. Taylor remembered the reactions:
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People … slammed doors in my face and hung up on me . . . [P]eople would say, 'No, I'm not getting mixed up in that!' And, 'You have to get out of this, Elizabeth. It's going to ruin your career.' These reactions only seemed to strengthen Taylor’s resolve. Indeed, the vitriolic homophobia surrounding AIDS motivated her to become involved in the first place. She was quoted as saying:
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"Worse than the virus there was the terrible discrimination and prejudice it left in its wake. Suddenly it made gay people stop being human beings and start becoming the enemy. I knew somebody had to do something. For God's sake, our president didn't even utter the word for years into the epidemic."
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And
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"If it weren't for homosexuals there would be no culture. We can trace that back thousands of years. So many of the great musicians, the great painters were homosexual. Without their input it would be an entirely different, flat world. To see their heritage, what they had given the world, be desecrated with people saying, 'Oh, AIDS is probably what they deserve' or 'it's probably God's way of weeding the dreadful people out,' made me so irate."
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Taylor made AIDS her life’s cause. At a time when the disease was called "the gay plague" and others were afraid to even touch people with HIV, Taylor employed her star power to help humanize those living with the disease. She made headlines throughout the world when she was photographed shaking hands with HIV/AIDS patients in a Thai hospital. She helped found the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amFAR) in 1985, and later, in 1991, the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF).
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An impassioned lobbyist, Taylor was not afraid of taking a swipe at leaders for their inaction. At an international AIDS conference, she criticized the first president Bush, remarking, “I don't think [he] is doing anything at all about AIDS. In fact I'm not even sure if he knows how to spell AIDS.” She testified before Congress in 1986 in support of the Ryan White Act, and then again in 1990, when it finally passed. She also spoke at the United Nations, imploring its members to join in the fight against the disease.
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The Christianists may mock Taylor for her many marriages, but in my view it is she, not the self-anointed pious ones, who understood the real Gospel message and acted when others would not. She was one brave woman.