Show’s over, I’m taking over. I’m here tonight to clear the air on a couple of things:
My husband and I recently adopted a beautiful little girl, and some people think it’s wrong we have a child because they don’t agree with our lifestyle.
Yes, we are lovers, we are husbands, and now we are parents… But we have always been emo. It’s no dirty little secret. And it should be no one’s business if Brendan and I choose to raise our daughter in an emo household.
I’m hoping to change your mind around emos tonight. They’ll tell you emos are disingenuous, that it’s just a phase, that emos make bad parents, that rates of suicide and self harm are higher amongst the emo community. People are like a lawyer with the way they’ll try to turn you off emos. But those are just famous last words from people who don’t understand emos at all. Maybe, if emos weren’t so oppressed and discriminated against, that wouldn’t be the case.
Being emo is not a choice, it’s a fever you can’t sweat out. You can’t choose being born rich or poor, the colour of your skin, or being born at all.
People think that by raising our daughter emo we’re trying to indoctrinate her into the emo lifestyle, not true at all. You’re either born emo or you’re not.
But why do you think emos cry, get depressed, or even cut themselves? It’s because emos are so in touch with their feelings, they have so much empathy. Sometimes we feel so much we can’t take it.
By raising our daughter emo, Brendan and I are teaching her it’s OK to feel and it’s OK to be yourself.
No matter how she turns out, we emos have been through so much; we’ve had to eat nails for breakfast and tacks for snacks, no matter how our daughter turns out, we won’t be disenchanted.
We may be emo, but we will still love her, even if she grows up to be Goth, or punk, we’ll even still love her if she’s hardcore. Because we are emo.
We took our daughter into the city to see a marching band, and we weren’t trying to cause a scene, but it felt like a goddamned arms race!
They think Brendan and I with our daughter is a right sin, or a tragedy.
They say it’s wrong, so I ask if they’ve ever heard of shutting their goddamned mouth.
When they see us living our sharpest lives, I hope it gives them hell.
Because I am not afraid to keep on living.
I am not afraid to walk this world with my husband and daughter.
Because… we’ll carry on, we’ll carry on.
You may wish us dead and gone, but believe me.
We’ll carry on.
This is not how I disappear. One day, my daughter will come up to both her dads, I’ll say, ‘Hey there Delilah, come sit on your dads’ lap. When you grow up, would you be the saviour of the broken and the damned?
And I just want her to look at her two dads and say, ‘Dads, thanks for the memories.’