We want to tip our hat--or whatever the Christian equivalent of the Yalmuke is--at Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The Nobel Prize winning Archbishop is no stranger to awards or to giving speeches. But this was Tutu's "first time" doing it with the gays. We were afraid Tutu would suffer from performance anxiety or deliver an anti-climactic 30 second speech. But he was great!

Last night the Archbishop attended A Celebration of Courage, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission’s (IGLHRC’s) annual gala awards ceremony at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. He was presented with an OUTSPOKEN Award for "his leadership as a global ally of the LGBTI community whose outspokenness has contributed substantially to advancing the rights and understanding of LGBTI* people everywhere."(We think that's why he wore pink. That or because it looks great on him.)

The Nobel Prize winning Archbishop is no stranger to awards or to giving speeches. But this was Tutu's "first time" doing it with the gays. And though we were afraid Tutu would suffer from performance anxiety or deliver an anti-climactic 30 second speech, he was surprisingly smooth and natural. Tutu "condemn[ed] the persecution of LGBTI people, apologize[d] on behalf of his Church for ostracizing gay people," and  explained he could not remain silent “when people were frequently hounded...vilified, molested and even killed as targets of homophobia...for something they did not choose—their sexual orientation.” Tutu also gave the LGBTI community props for being “compassionate, caring, self-sacrificing and refusing to be embittered.” And he criticized The Church for being “so obsessed with this particular issue of human sexuality when God's children are facing massive problems--poverty, disease, corruption, conflict...”

*I stands for Intersex. I have to admit I had to google this.