Ricky Martin has issued a statement speaking out against homophobia. Author and activist Larry La Fountain-Stokes, author of Queer Ricans, posted this story in English and Spanish. Martin writes:

Well, when we believe in peace, there is simply no room for complacency. The murders of James Byrd, Matthew Shepard, Jorge Steven Lopez, Marcelo Lucero, Luis Ramirez and countless others who were victims of violent “hate crimes” should be completely unacceptable to every human being; because we’re all human beings. It’s up to us to change the paradigm. I hear the world “tolerance” thrown around in the media when it comes to cases like the ones I mentioned above. One of the meanings of tolerance is “the capacity to endure pain or hardship.” Another is “the act of allowing something.” To me, those don’t seem to encompass acceptance, by any definition. So how about this? Instead of saying “we need to tolerate diversity” why not say, “we need to accept diversity.”

Las muertes de James Byrd, como la de Matthew Shepard, Jorge Steven López, Marcelo Lucero y Luis Ramírez, entre tantas otras víctimas de crímenes violentos “de odio” deben ser inaceptables para todos los seres humanos; porque todos somos seres humanos. Está en nosotros cambiar el paradigma, por eso cuando escucho como algunos medios se aferran a la palabra “tolerancia” cuando se trata de casos como éstos, me pregunto por qué, en lugar de hablar de que “necesitamos tolerar la diversidad” no decimos “necesitamos aceptar la diversidad”.

Una de las definiciones de tolerancia es “la capacidad para sobrellevar el dolor y las dificultades”. Otra es “el acto de permitir que algo suceda”. Para mí ninguna de estas definiciones incluye la aceptación.

Qué creen entonces, si en vez de decir: “necesitamos tolerar la diversidad” decimos, “necesitamos aceptar la diversidad”.

I have to say that I agree with Martin’s deconstruction of the term “tolerance.” Often I think it is condescending to say you “tolerate” someone, as if it is a gift you are giving to someone else versus to yourself. Perhaps this is because people do not know what “respect” would look like, feel like, or result in if they were to say they “respect” someone. Does that mean that we have a hard time explaining what respect we have accepted and experienced? How do we differentiate how we practice tolerance versus how we practice respect?