homosexuality represents a misuse of the sexual faculty.

同性戀仍是性機能的誤用

It is a pathetic little second-rate substitute for reality --

是一種可悲又渺小的二流現實替代品

a pitiable flight from life.

是一場逃離人生的可憐之旅

As such, it deserves no compassion,

因此，同性戀不值得同情

it deserves no treatment

不值得擁有

as minority martyrdom,

受苦的少數族群該有的待遇

and it deserves not to be deemed anything but a pernicious sickness."

同性戀應該被視為一種惡性疾病。」

That's from Time magazine in 1966, when I was three years old.

那是引自 1966 年的時代雜誌，我當時三歲

And last year, the president of the United States

而去年，美國總統

came out in favor of gay marriage.

公開表態支持同性婚姻

(Applause)

（掌聲）

And my question is, how did we get from there to here?

我的問題是，我們是怎麼走過來的？

How did an illness become an identity?

疾病是如何變成一種身分的？

When I was perhaps six years old,

我大概六歲的時候

I went to a shoe store with my mother and my brother.

跟媽媽和弟弟去鞋店

And at the end of buying our shoes,

買完鞋後

the salesman said to us that we could each have a balloon to take home.

店員告訴我們可以各拿一個氣球回家

My brother wanted a red balloon, and I wanted a pink balloon.

我弟弟想要紅色的，我想要粉紅色的

My mother said that she thought I'd really rather have a blue balloon.

媽媽說我想要的其實是藍色的氣球

But I said that I definitely wanted the pink one.

但是我堅決表示，我想要粉紅色的

And she reminded me that my favorite color was blue.

媽媽提醒我，藍色才是我的最愛

The fact that my favorite color now is blue, but I'm still gay --

現在我最愛的顏色確實是藍色，但我仍舊是同志

(Laughter) --

（笑聲）

is evidence of both my mother's influence and its limits.

證明了媽媽影響力之大，但也有其極限

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

(Applause)

（掌聲）

When I was little, my mother used to say,

小時候媽媽常常告訴我

"The love you have for your children is like no other feeling in the world.

「父母對子女的愛是世上獨一無二的感情

And until you have children, you don't know what it's like."

等到你為人父母才能體會。 」

And when I was little, I took it as the greatest compliment in the world

媽媽會如此表達養育我和弟弟的心情

that she would say that about parenting my brother and me.

小時候我認為那是至高無上的讚美

And when I was an adolescent, I thought

等到了青春期，我就開始想

that I'm gay, and so I probably can't have a family.

我是同志，大概不能有家庭了

And when she said it, it made me anxious.

那時媽媽舊話重提，讓我感到不安

And after I came out of the closet,

我出櫃以後

when she continued to say it, it made me furious.

媽媽還繼續說，我就發飆了

I said, "I'm gay. That's not the direction that I'm headed in.

我告訴她「我是同志，不打算走那條路

And I want you to stop saying that."

請您以後別再提了。」

About 20 years ago, I was asked by my editors at The New York Times Magazine

大約 20 年前，紐約時報雜誌的編輯向我邀稿

to write a piece about deaf culture.

讓我寫一篇聾人文化的文章

And I was rather taken aback.

我大吃一驚

I had thought of deafness entirely as an illness.

在那之前我一直認為耳聾完全是一種疾病

Those poor people, they couldn't hear.

那群可憐的人，他們聽不到

They lacked hearing, and what could we do for them?

他們失去了聽力，我們幫得上忙嗎？

And then I went out into the deaf world.

然後我走進聾人的世界

I went to deaf clubs.

我去了聾人俱樂部

I saw performances of deaf theater and of deaf poetry.

我去看聾人戲劇和聾人詩歌

I even went to the Miss Deaf America contest in Nashville, Tennessee

我甚至去了田納西州的納許維爾看聾人美國小姐大賽

where people complained about that slurry Southern signing.

那裡有人抱怨含糊的南方手語

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

And as I plunged deeper and deeper into the deaf world,

當我越來越深入聾人的世界

I become convinced that deafness was a culture

我開始確信聾是一種文化

and that the people in the deaf world who said,

也相信聾人所說

"We don't lack hearing, we have membership in a culture,"

「我們沒有聽覺的缺憾，我們是聾文化的成員。」

were saying something that was viable.

這種說法是站得住腳的

It wasn't my culture,

聾不是我的文化

and I didn't particularly want to rush off and join it,

我也不是特別想要跑去參與

but I appreciated that it was a culture

但是我體會得出聾是一種文化

and that for the people who were members of it,

對於聾人而言

it felt as valuable as Latino culture or gay culture or Jewish culture.

聾文化的價值不亞於拉美裔文化、同志文化或猶太文化

It felt as valid perhaps even as American culture.

我覺得聾文化也許甚至和美國文化一樣正當

Then a friend of a friend of mine had a daughter who was a dwarf.

然後我朋友的朋友生了一個侏儒女兒

And when her daughter was born,

她女兒出生時

she suddenly found herself confronting questions

她突然面臨難題

that now began to seem quite resonant to me.

我現在頗能體會她當時的心境

She was facing the question of what to do with this child.

她面對的問題是怎麼教小孩

Should she say, "You're just like everyone else but a little bit shorter?"

她應該說：「妳和大家沒兩樣，只不過稍矮一點」嗎？

Or should she try to construct some kind of dwarf identity,

還是她應該打造某種侏儒身分

get involved in the Little People of America,

參與美國矮人協會

become aware of what was happening for dwarfs?

去認識侏儒面臨的問題

And I suddenly thought,

我當時突然想到

most deaf children are born to hearing parents.

大多數聾人的父母是聽得見的

Those hearing parents tend to try to cure them.

有聽力的父母通常會想治好聾孩子

Those deaf people discover community somehow in adolescence.

但是這些聾人在青少年時期總是能找到自己的社群

Most gay people are born to straight parents.

大多數同志的父母不是同性戀

Those straight parents often want them to function

那些不是同志的父母通常會要求同志

in what they think of as the mainstream world,

在父母認知的主流社會裡表現正常

and those gay people have to discover identity later on.

這些同志要等到以後才能發覺自己的身分

And here was this friend of mine

而我的那位朋友

looking at these questions of identity with her dwarf daughter.

她在思考侏儒女兒的身分問題

And I thought, there it is again:

我當時就想，又是同樣的問題

A family that perceives itself to be normal

一個自認為正常的家庭

with a child who seems to be extraordinary.

卻有了看似與眾不同的孩子

And I hatched the idea that there are really two kinds of identity.

於是我的想法誕生了：其實身分有兩種

There are vertical identities,

一種是垂直身分

which are passed down generationally from parent to child.

從父母到子女世代相傳

Those are things like ethnicity, frequently nationality, language, often religion.

像是種族，經常包括國籍、語言，通常也有宗教

Those are things you have in common with your parents and with your children.

這些都是你和你的父母及子女共同擁有的

And while some of them can be difficult,

有些垂直身分或許難以認同

there's no attempt to cure them.

但沒有人想要改正這些身分

You can argue that it's harder in the United States --

你可以主張美國有一種身分較為困難

our current presidency notwithstanding --

姑且不論現任總統也是這個身分

to be a person of color.

就是有色人種

And yet, we have nobody who is trying to ensure

然而沒人會想要確保

that the next generation of children born to African-Americans and Asians

非裔和亞裔美國人的下一代

come out with creamy skin and yellow hair.

生出來的時候會是金髮白膚

There are these other identities which you have to learn from a peer group.

另一種身分必須從同輩中得知

And I call them horizontal identities,

我稱之為水平身分

because the peer group is the horizontal experience.

因為同輩之間的體驗是水平的

These are identities that are alien to your parents

水平身分是你父母所沒有的

and that you have to discover when you get to see them in peers.

必須在同輩之間察覺到這種身分才能認同

And those identities, those horizontal identities,

這些身分，這些水平身分

people have almost always tried to cure.

人們幾乎總是想要治癒

And I wanted to look at what the process is

我要觀察的是一種歷程

through which people who have those identities

有這些水平身分的人

come to a good relationship with them.

如何處之泰然的歷程

And it seemed to me that there were three levels of acceptance

在我看來，似乎需要

that needed to take place.

三個層次的接受

There's self-acceptance, there's family acceptance, and there's social acceptance.

自我接受、家庭接受、社會接受

And they don't always coincide.

三種接受不一定同時發生

And a lot of the time, people who have these conditions are very angry

不被接受的人常常會很生氣

because they feel as though their parents don't love them,

因為覺得父母好像不愛他們

when what actually has happened is that their parents don't accept them.

其實父母只是不贊同他們

Love is something that ideally is there unconditionally

愛，理想上是沒有條件的

throughout the relationship between a parent and a child.

在親子關係裡恆久存在

But acceptance is something that takes time.

但是接受需要時間

It always takes time.

總是需要時間

One of the dwarfs I got to know was a guy named Clinton Brown.

我認識一位叫做克林頓 • 布朗的侏儒

When he was born, he was diagnosed with diastrophic dwarfism,

他出生時被診斷為畸形性侏儒症

a very disabling condition,

一種極端殘障的病症

and his parents were told that he would never walk, he would never talk,

他的父母被告知，他以後永遠不能走路，也不會說話

he would have no intellectual capacity,

還會有智能障礙

and he would probably not even recognize them.

甚至可能認不出父母

And it was suggested to them that they leave him at the hospital

醫生建議他們把孩子留在醫院

so that he could die there quietly.

讓他在那裡靜靜地死去

And his mother said she wasn't going to do it.

他的媽媽不願意這麼做

And she took her son home.

她把兒子帶回家

And even though she didn't have a lot of educational or financial advantages,

雖然媽媽教育程度不高也不富裕

she found the best doctor in the country

卻找到了全國最好的醫生

for dealing with diastrophic dwarfism,

主治畸形性侏儒症

and she got Clinton enrolled with him.

媽媽讓克林頓去看那位醫生

And in the course of his childhood,

克林頓的童年

he had 30 major surgical procedures.

接受過 30 個重大的外科手術

And he spent all this time stuck in the hospital

他為了動手術

while he was having those procedures,

長時間待在醫院

as a result of which he now can walk.

結果他現在可以走路

And while he was there, they sent tutors around to help him with his school work.

他在醫院的時候有老師輔導課業

And he worked very hard because there was nothing else to do.

他很用功，因為沒別的事情可做

And he ended up achieving at a level

他後來的成就

that had never before been contemplated by any member of his family.

家人以前怎麼也想不到

He was the first one in his family, in fact, to go to college,

事實上他是家裡面第一位上大學的

where he lived on campus and drove a specially-fitted car

他住校而且自己開車

that accommodated his unusual body.

一輛為他特殊身體狀況而製的車子

And his mother told me this story of coming home one day --

他媽媽有一天告訴我他兒子回家的故事

and he went to college nearby --

他的學校離家很近

and she said, "I saw that car, which you can always recognize,

她說：「我看到那輛車，一眼就認出來是他的

in the parking lot of a bar," she said. (Laughter)

車子停在酒吧的停車場。」（笑聲）

"And I thought to myself, they're six feet tall, he's three feet tall.

她說：「我心裡想，他們 180 公分，他才 90 公分

Two beers for them is four beers for him."

他們的兩杯啤酒是他的四杯。」

She said, "I knew I couldn't go in there and interrupt him,

她說：「我知道不能進去阻止他

but I went home, and I left him eight messages on his cell phone."

但我回家後留了八封手機簡訊給他。」

She said, "And then I thought,

她說：「然後我心裡想

if someone had said to me when he was born

如果他出生時有人告訴我

that my future worry would be that he'd go drinking and driving with his college buddies -- "

將來我擔心的會是他和大學同伴酒後駕車...。」

(Applause)

（掌聲）

And I said to her, "What do you think you did

然後我問她：「妳認為自己做了什麼

that helped him to emerge as this charming, accomplished, wonderful person?"

能幫助他成為迷人、有成就、又令人驚嘆的人？

And she said, "What did I do? I loved him, that's all.

她回答：「我做了什麼？我愛他，沒別的。」

Clinton just always had that light in him.

克林頓的心中總是有著光芒

And his father and I were lucky enough to be the first to see it there."

而他父親和我，是有幸最先看到那道光芒的人。」

I'm going to quote from another magazine of the '60s.

我要引述 1960 年代另一家雜誌

This one is from 1968 -- The Atlantic Monthly, voice of liberal America --

這次是 1968 年的大西洋月刊 —美國的自由主義之聲

written by an important bioethicist.

作者是重要的生物倫理學家

He said, "There is no reason to feel guilty

他表示：「對於放棄唐氏症兒童

about putting a Down syndrome child away,

我們沒有理由內疚

whether it is put away in the sense of hidden in a sanitarium

無論是私下送到療養院

or in a more responsible, lethal sense.

或是更負責的、一了百了的方式

It is sad, yes -- dreadful. But it carries no guilt.

很可悲沒錯，也很可怕。但是不需要內疚

True guilt arises only from an offense against a person,

真正的內疚，是冒犯他人

and a Down's is not a person."

而唐氏症患者不算是人。」

There's been a lot of ink given to the enormous progress that we've made

關於同志處境的大幅進步

in the treatment of gay people.

已經有很多文章有所著墨

The fact that our attitude has changed is in the headlines every day.

每天的頭條都有報導我們對同志的態度已改變

But we forget how we used to see people who had other differences,

但我們忘了過去是怎麼看待其他不同的人

how we used to see people who were disabled,

忘了過去是怎麼看待殘障的人

how inhuman we held people to be.

忘了過去我們是多麼不人道

And the change that's been accomplished there,

在那些方面的改變

which is almost equally radical,

幾乎同樣地激進

is one that we pay not very much attention to.

我們卻不是很重視

One of the families I interviewed, Tom and Karen Robards,

我採訪過羅巴茲家庭的湯姆和凱倫夫婦

were taken aback when, as young and successful New Yorkers,

他們當時是年輕且成功的紐約人

their first child was diagnosed with Down syndrome.

得知長子是唐氏兒時大為驚訝

They thought the educational opportunities for him were not what they should be,

他們認為兒子的教育機會不符期望

and so they decided they would build a little center --

於是決定要成立一個小型中心

two classrooms that they started with a few other parents --

利用兩間教室，開始和其他父母

to educate kids with D.S.

一起教導唐氏兒

And over the years, that center grew into something called the Cooke Center,

多年來，該中心已擴大為庫克中心

where there are now thousands upon thousands

現在有成千上萬名

of children with intellectual disabilities who are being taught.

智障兒童在此受教

In the time since that Atlantic Monthly story ran,

自從大西洋月刊登出那篇文章以來

the life expectancy for people with Down syndrome has tripled.

唐氏症患者的平均壽命已成長了三倍

The experience of Down syndrome people includes those who are actors,

有唐氏症的人包括演員

those who are writers, some who are able to live fully independently in adulthood.

作家以及成年後可以完全獨立生活的人

The Robards had a lot to do with that.

羅巴茲夫婦的貢獻不小

And I said, "Do you regret it?

我問他們：「你們有遺憾嗎？

Do you wish your child didn't have Down syndrome?

你們希望自己的孩子不是唐氏兒嗎？

Do you wish you'd never heard of it?"

你們希望從未聽過唐氏症這回事嗎？

And interestingly his father said,

有趣的是這位父親表示

"Well, for David, our son, I regret it,

「這個嘛，為了兒子大衛著想，我有遺憾

because for David, it's a difficult way to be in the world,

因為對大衛來說，這個世界的患者之路很難走

and I'd like to give David an easier life.

我想讓大衛生活得更輕鬆

But I think if we lost everyone with Down syndrome, it would be a catastrophic loss."

但我想，如果世上不再有唐氏兒，會是極大的損失。」

And Karen Robards said to me, "I'm with Tom.

凱倫 • 羅巴茲對我說：「我同意湯姆的看法

For David, I would cure it in an instant to give him an easier life.

為了讓大衛過得更輕鬆，我會想立刻治癒唐氏症

But speaking for myself -- well, I would never have believed 23 years ago when he was born

但對我而言，23年前他出生時，我絕不會相信

that I could come to such a point --

我能走到今天這一步

speaking for myself, it's made me so much better and so much kinder

對我而言，他的病讓我成為更好、更仁慈的人

and so much more purposeful in my whole life,

讓我的人生更有目的

that speaking for myself, I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world."

對我而言，這種經驗世上任何東西都換不來。」

We live at a point when social acceptance for these and many other conditions

現在社會對這些和其他病症的接受程度

is on the up and up.

越來越高

And yet we also live at the moment

然而此時此刻

when our ability to eliminate those conditions

我們滅絕這些病症的能力

has reached a height we never imagined before.

也已經達到了超乎想像的高峰

Most deaf infants born in the United States now

美國現在新生的聾兒

will receive Cochlear implants,

會接受人工電子耳

which are put into the brain and connected to a receiver,

植入大腦並連上接收器

and which allow them to acquire a facsimile of hearing and to use oral speech.

讓他們具有聽說的能力