Actor-filmmaker Robert Redford on Monday offered support for
Utah's LGBT community at an event for Equality Utah, the state's
largest LGBT rights advocate.
The group is currently lobbying for passage of a statewide bill
which would outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation
and gender identity in the areas of employment and housing.
“I'm here for the same reason you are – equal rights for all,”
Redford told the more than 2,000 people who attended the
group's annual Allies Dinner in Salt Lake City. “Like you, I
believe there's no place in our world for discrimination. None. I
think it is un-American.”
“If we change discriminatory laws in Utah, it sets a benchmark
for people in other states; it allows people to see what can be
done.”
Redford
added: “Utah is changing. There are good people in Utah. More
people want to change the discriminatory laws than want to keep them.
People should be able to marry whomever they love.”
In closing, Redford quoted T.S. Eliot: “There is only the
trying. The rest is not our business.”
Redford holds his annual Sundance Film Festival in Park City,
Utah.
(Related: Steve
Young says he's a Mormon who wants to build bridges with the gay
community.)