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  • This summer I was back in Ohio for a family wedding,

  • and when I was there,

  • there was a meet and greet with Anna and Elsa from "Frozen."

  • Not the Anna and Elsa from "Frozen,"

  • as this was not a Disney-sanctioned event.

  • These two entrepreneurs had a business of running princess parties.

  • Your kid is turning five?

  • They'll come sing some songs, sprinkle some fairy dust, it's great.

  • And they were not about to miss out on the opportunity

  • that was the phenomenon and that was "Frozen."

  • So they get hired by a local toy store,

  • kids come in on a Saturday morning,

  • buy some Disney swag, get their picture taken with the princesses,

  • call it a day.

  • It's like Santa Claus without the seasonal restrictions.

  • (Laughter)

  • And my three-and-a-half-year-old niece Samantha was in the thick of it.

  • She could care less that these two women were signing posters and coloring books

  • as Snow Queen and Princess Ana with one N to avoid copyright lawsuits.

  • (Laughter)

  • According to my niece and the 200-plus kids in the parking lot that day,

  • this was the Anna and Elsa from "Frozen."

  • It is a blazing hot Saturday morning in August in Ohio.

  • We get there at 10 o'clock, the scheduled start time,

  • and we are handed number 59.

  • By 11 o'clock they had called numbers 21 through 25;

  • this was going to be a while,

  • and there is no amount of free face painting or temporary tattoos

  • that could prevent the meltdowns that were occurring outside of the store.

  • (Laughter)

  • So, by 12:30 we get called:

  • "56 to 63, please."

  • And as we walk in, it is a scene I can only describe you

  • as saying it looked like Norway threw up.

  • (Laughter)

  • There were cardboard cut-out snowflakes covering the floor,

  • glitter on every flat surface, and icicles all over the walls.

  • And as we stood in line

  • in an attempt to give my niece a better vantage point

  • than the backside of the mother of number 58,

  • I put her up on my shoulders,

  • and she was instantly riveted by the sight of the princesses.

  • And as we moved forward, her excitement only grew,

  • and as we finally got to the front of the line,

  • and number 58 unfurled her poster to be signed by the princesses,

  • I could literally feel the excitement running through her body.

  • And let's be honest, at that point, I was pretty excited too.

  • (Laughter)

  • I mean, the Scandinavian decadence was mesmerizing.

  • (Laughter)

  • So we get to the front of the line,

  • and the haggard clerk turns to my niece and says,

  • "Hi, honey. You're next!

  • Do you want to get down, or you're going to stay

  • on your dad's shoulders for the picture?'

  • (Laughter)

  • And I was, for a lack of a better word, frozen.

  • (Laughter)

  • It's amazing that in an unexpected instant we are faced with the question,

  • who am I?

  • Am I an aunt? Or am I an advocate?

  • Millions of people have seen my video about how to have a hard conversation,

  • and there one was, right in front of me.

  • At the same time,

  • there's nothing more important to me than the kids in my life,

  • so I found myself in a situation that we so often find ourselves in,

  • torn between two things, two impossible choices.

  • Would I be an advocate?

  • Would I take my niece off my shoulders and turn to the clerk and explain to her

  • that I was in fact her aunt, not her father,

  • and that she should be more careful

  • and not to jump to gender conclusions based on haircuts and shoulder rides --

  • (Laughter) --

  • and while doing that,

  • miss out on what was, to this point, the greatest moment of my niece's life.

  • Or would I be an aunt?

  • Would I brush off that comment, take a million pictures,

  • and not be distracted for an instant from the pure joy of that moment,

  • and by doing that,

  • walk out with the shame that comes up for not standing up for myself,

  • especially in front of my niece.

  • Who was I?

  • Which one was more important? Which role was more worth it?

  • Was I an aunt? Or was I an advocate?

  • And I had a split second to decide.

  • We are taught right now

  • that we are living in a world of constant and increasing polarity.

  • It's so black and white, so us and them, so right and wrong.

  • There is no middle, there is no gray, just polarity.

  • Polarity is a state in which two ideas or opinions

  • are completely opposite from each other;

  • a diametrical opposition.

  • Which side are you on?

  • Are you unequivocally and without question antiwar, pro-choice, anti-death penalty,

  • pro-gun regulation, proponent of open borders and pro-union?

  • Or, are you absolutely and uncompromisingly

  • pro-war, pro-life, pro-death penalty,

  • a believer that the Second Amendment is absolute,

  • anti-immigrant and pro-business?

  • It's all or none, you're with us or against us.

  • That is polarity.

  • The problem with polarity and absolutes is that

  • it eliminates the individuality of our human experience

  • and that makes it contradictory to our human nature.

  • But if we are pulled in these two directions,

  • but it's not really where we exist --

  • polarity is not our actual reality --

  • where do we go from there?

  • What's at the other end of that spectrum?

  • I don't think it's an unattainable, harmonious utopia,

  • I think the opposite of polarity is duality.

  • Duality is a state of having two parts,

  • but not in diametrical opposition,

  • in simultaneous existence.

  • Don't think it's possible?

  • Here are the people I know:

  • I know Catholics who are pro-choice, and feminists who wear hijabs,

  • and veterans who are antiwar,

  • and NRA members who think I should be able to get married.

  • Those are the people I know, those are my friends and family,

  • that is the majority of our society, that is you, that is me.

  • (Applause)

  • Duality is the ability to hold both things.

  • But the question is: Can we own our duality?

  • Can we have the courage to hold both things?

  • I work at a restaurant in town,

  • I became really good friends with the busser.

  • I was a server and we had a great relationship,

  • we had a really great time together.

  • Her Spanish was great

  • because she was from Mexico.

  • (Laughter)

  • That line actually went the other way.

  • Her English was limited, but significantly better than my Spanish.

  • But we were united by our similarities,

  • not separated by our differences.

  • And we were close, even though we came from very different worlds.

  • She was from Mexico,

  • she left her family behind so she could come here

  • and afford them a better life back home.

  • She was a devout conservative Catholic,

  • a believer in traditional family values,

  • stereotypical roles of men and women,

  • and I was, well, me.

  • (Laughter)

  • But the things that bonded us were when she asked about my girlfriend,

  • or she shared pictures that she had from her family back home.

  • Those were the things that brought us together.

  • So one day, we were in the back,

  • scarfing down food as quickly as we could, gathered around a small table,

  • during a very rare lull,

  • and a new guy from the kitchen came over --

  • who happened to be her cousin --

  • and sat down with all the bravado and machismo

  • that his 20-year-old body could hold.

  • (Laughter)

  • And he said to her, [in Spanish] "Does Ash have a boyfriend?"

  • And she said, [in Spanish] "No, she has a girlfriend."

  • And he said, [in Spanish] "A girlfriend?!?"

  • And she set down her fork, and locked eyes with him,

  • and said, [in Spanish] "Yes, a girlfriend. That is all."

  • And his smug smile quickly dropped to one of maternal respect,

  • grabbed his plate, walked off, went back to work.

  • She never made eye contact with me.

  • She left, did the same thing --

  • it was a 10-second conversation, such a short interaction.

  • And on paper, she had so much more in common with him:

  • language, culture, history, family, her community was her lifeline here,

  • but her moral compass trumped all of that.

  • And a little bit later, they were joking around in the kitchen in Spanish,

  • that had nothing to do with me,

  • and that is duality.

  • She didn't have to choose some P.C. stance on gayness over her heritage.