America is famously proud of that long held declaration “All Men are Created Equal”

And they have for over two centuries proclaimed that on high about how that and so many other things make their nation great, wonderful and the most awesome nation to every grace the history of the planet.

And yet, you will have so many people of that very nation, in speech, and action, show their true colours and show their belief that they do not believe that all men are created equal, that not all people are equal in humanity, empathy, capability, decency and conscience.

And it may shock you, but I agree with them.

Not everyone is created equal.

There are people of every creed, every colour, every possible facet of identity and sexuality that covers the rainbow of possibility of human experience.

And then, there are arseholes.

They are definitely not equal to the rest of us.

Where most of us look on each other as human beings, capable of darkness and light, beauty and sadness, of being as spectacular an example of the creative spark in the human soul as you could imagine, there are also the narrow minded, the mean spirited, the petty, vicious, cruel, hateful arseholes.

These people, and I use the term loosely, are less than us, and are not equal to the youngest child that looks on all those around them as a potential friend and someone to laugh and have fun with.

They are less than those of us who would sing and dance, paint and sculpt, work and love, with no concern for those who are living lives different to our own that cause no harm to our kith and kin.

No, they are not our equals, they are in many ways beneath us, but as we accept and support those who make mistakes, who fall on hard times, who need help either once or time after time after time, we must do what we can to help them be better than they are, better than they seem to be, and at the very least, recognise that they, in all their fury and sound, are less than worth listening to in their hatreds and pettiness, and leave all the divisions they would sow behind.

We, the real people as it were,  from all sorts of beginnings, living all sorts of lives, are equal to each other in our desire for peace, love, acceptance and a place to call home.

And for those others, those arseholes, we can only pity them, for in a lot of cases, they really do not know what they do.

Saeed Parker  - Speech at Equality Rally