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"Even in purely non-religious terms,
“就算抛开宗教信仰的因素，
homosexuality represents a misuse of the sexual faculty.
同性恋也是性滥交的代名词
It is a pathetic little second-rate substitute for reality --
它是可悲的，次等的，一种现实的替代品
a pitiable flight from life.
是人生中一段令人遗憾的旅程
As such, it deserves no compassion,
因此，同性恋不值得同情
it deserves no treatment
也不值得治疗
as minority martyrdom,
因为只有少数人为此受难
and it deserves not to be deemed anything but a pernicious sickness."
同性恋只值得视为一种有害的疾病"
That's from Time magazine in 1966, when I was three years old.
上述的话选自1966年发行的 《时代》杂志，那时我只有三岁.
And last year, the president of the United States
但是就在去年，美国总统
came out in favor of gay marriage.
站出来表示支持同性恋婚姻
And my question is, how did we get from there to here?
我的问题是，我们是如何实现这种态度的转变？
How did an illness become an identity?
曾经的疾病是如何成为现在的一种身份认同？
When I was perhaps six years old,
当我差不多六岁的时候
I went to a shoe store with my mother and my brother.
我和妈妈还有弟弟去一家鞋店
And at the end of buying our shoes,
最后，当我们付款买鞋子的时候
the salesman said to us that we could each have a balloon to take home.
售货员告诉我们，我们每个人可以挑选一个气球带回家
My brother wanted a red balloon, and I wanted a pink balloon.
我的弟弟想要一个红色的气球，我想要粉色的气球
My mother said that she thought I'd really rather have a blue balloon.
而我的母亲说她觉得我应该选一个蓝色的气球
But I said that I definitely wanted the pink one.
但是我说我想要的毫无疑问是粉色的气球
And she reminded me that my favorite color was blue.
她提醒我，我最喜欢的颜色是蓝色
The fact that my favorite color now is blue, but I'm still gay --
其结果是，我现在最喜欢的颜色是蓝色，但我依旧是个同性恋者
is evidence of both my mother's influence and its limits.
这既反应了母亲对孩子的影响，也反应了这其中的局限性
When I was little, my mother used to say,
当我很小的时候，母亲曾经说过
"The love you have for your children is like no other feeling in the world.
"父母对子女的爱是世界上，其它一切感情都无法比拟的，
And until you have children, you don't know what it's like."
只有当你拥有自己的孩子时，你才能体会到"
And when I was little, I took it as the greatest compliment in the world
我小的时候，把母亲讲的，关于抚育我和弟弟的这段话
that she would say that about parenting my brother and me.
当成是世界上最高称赞
And when I was an adolescent, I thought
当我成为一个青少年的时候，我想
that I'm gay, and so I probably can't have a family.
我是同性恋，所以我可能不会有自己的家庭
And when she said it, it made me anxious.
当母亲说那些话的时候，我就会感到很焦虑
And after I came out of the closet,
当我的事公之于众后,
when she continued to say it, it made me furious.
母亲还重提此事，我感到很恼火
I said, "I'm gay. That's not the direction that I'm headed in.
我说：“我是同性恋。我不会走那条路。
And I want you to stop saying that."
我希望你不要再说那些话了。”
About 20 years ago, I was asked by my editors at The New York Times Magazine
大约二十年前， 《纽约时报》主编让我
to write a piece about deaf culture.
写一篇关于聋人文化的文章
And I was rather taken aback.
我感到很惊讶
I had thought of deafness entirely as an illness.
我原以为耳聋就是一种疾病
Those poor people, they couldn't hear.
那些可怜的人呀，他们什么都听不见
They lacked hearing, and what could we do for them?
如果他们听不见，我们能为他们做什么呢？
And then I went out into the deaf world.
接下来，我走进了聋人世界
I went to deaf clubs.
我去了聋人俱乐部
I saw performances of deaf theater and of deaf poetry.
观看了聋人的表演
I even went to the Miss Deaf America contest in Nashville, Tennessee
我甚至去了田纳西州纳什维尔的 “美国聋人小姐”选秀赛
where people complained about that slurry Southern signing.
居然有人抱怨她们甜腻的南方手语“口音”
And as I plunged deeper and deeper into the deaf world,
随着越来越融入聋人世界
I become convinced that deafness was a culture
我开始相信耳聋是一种文化
and that the people in the deaf world who said,
并且聋人世界中的人也说，
"We don't lack hearing, we have membership in a culture,"
"我们不是听力不健全，我们是一种文化，"
were saying something that was viable.
这是可行的
It wasn't my culture,
这不是我的文化
and I didn't particularly want to rush off and join it,
我也没想冲过去加入这种文化
but I appreciated that it was a culture
但我欣赏它是一种文化
and that for the people who were members of it,
对其中的成员而言
it felt as valuable as Latino culture or gay culture or Jewish culture.
它的价值就如同拉美文化，同性恋文化或犹太文化
It felt as valid perhaps even as American culture.
它甚至可以和美国文化相媲美
Then a friend of a friend of mine had a daughter who was a dwarf.
我朋友的朋友有个女儿，是个小矮人
And when her daughter was born,
当她女儿出生的时候
she suddenly found herself confronting questions
她突然发现她要面对很多问题
that now began to seem quite resonant to me.
这些问题使我产生共鸣
She was facing the question of what to do with this child.
她当时面临的问题是--该如何对待这个孩子？
