Zach Wahls has said Ellen DeGeneres and
Neil Patrick Harris helped make his year “awesome.”
Wahls is the University of Iowa student
who defended his two-mom family at an Iowa House hearing considering
a proposed measure that would repeal the state's gay marriage law by
defining marriage as a heterosexual union in the Iowa Constitution.
A video of Wahls telling lawmakers that
his family isn't any different drew 18.3 million views to become the
most-watched video in 2011.
At Saturday night's Gay and Lesbian
Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Awards in New York City,
Wahls told attendees that he did not think of his mothers as being
gay.
“Now since that speech went viral
back in February of 2011, I've been all over the country,” Wahls
said. “From California to New York down to Florida. And I'm
continuing to share my story, and have this conversation about gay
marriage. Or as I like to call it: marriage.”
“Because obviously my moms are gay,
but they're not my gay moms.”
He added that while meeting Ellen
DeGeneres was “awesome” and Neil Patrick Harris “tweeting about
me was like dream come true,” the best parts of his year were those
private conversations he had with everyday folks. (The video is
embedded in the right panel of this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)