[UPDATE]: Melissa Carter, grateful for the outpouring of support she’s received from listeners about her emotional plea for people to accept gay people during Monday’s show, has posted the full transcript of her show on her blog.
Regular listeners of the Bert Show on Q100 heard something Monday morning they aren’t used to hearing — co-host Melissa Carter becoming emotional on the show.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Rodney Ho reports that Carter, a lesbian, became very distressed on air Monday morning after hearing the story of a gay man, Jeremy, who dated a man while at Emory before moving to Los Angeles for his residency. Jeremy then finds out the man he dated is about to marry his sister. Jeremy tells his sister her fiancé is, well, his ex-boyfriend, but she and Jeremy’s family don’t believe him. In fact, Jeremy’s own father punches him.
Ho transcribed this morning’s show and writes:
Melissa went on a four-minute monologue that became deeply
emotional.
“Let’s stop the cycle,” she said. “What more do we have to
say? What more do we have to show? We don’t need to treat each other this way.
So if you’re at church, reach out and tell people we are gay friendly and you
are welcome here and your whole congregation will teach you that God is about
love. If you’re straight, then you love your children.”
Then her voice breaks.
“I’m happy for Jenn [Hobby, her co-host] to be engaged and
marry Grant. But I’ve been with my girlfriend nearly five years and I cannot
get married because of the same crap that Jeremy is going through. It makes me
sad. And gay people, we’re sad so much of the time and we’re unhappy and we’re
in hiding. [Her girlfriend Katie has never come out on the radio.] When someone
makes a stupid comment about gay people or a gay joke, we just laugh and smile.
But it’s not funny. This is not funny. This is our life.”
Read what else Carter had to say about the incident on Q100 here.
Carter, who is currently contemplating having children with her girlfriend, Katie Jo, talked the Georgia Voice in April about the road to motherhood. She said she understood there are those out there who believe gay people shouldn’t be parents, but intends to raise her children honestly.
“As long as you are honest with your children … things work out,” Carter told the Georgia Voice. “There are some things we will have to deal with, like who will be male influences. But our children will be raised by two female parents who are very communicative and ambitious women. They will have absolutely no doubts in their mind they were wanted and loved.”
You can read the full story as well as watch a video interview with Carter here.