Barbra’s Entire Statement To The New York Times About Her Long Effort To Help Achieve Right-to-Love Equality

When I fell in love with Larry’s Kramer's play, "The Normal Heart," in 1986, I wanted to promote the idea of everyone’s right to love. Gay or straight! The gay community was suffering. A new disease was rearing its ugly head and no one was listening. Larry was at the forefront of this battle and God love him, he's still fighting. But there's no need to fight me by misrepresenting my feelings. As a filmmaker I have always looked for new and exciting ways to do love scenes. It's a matter of taste... whether they're about heterosexuals or homosexuals. I was trying to reach a large audience and I wanted them to want these two men to get married! We’ve come a long way since then—gay marriage is now legal in 17 states, but there are still 33 more to go. I’m just glad that a large audience will finally get to see this story. It's an historical document now.