Remember, it's not about politics; it's about people

I don't have heroes, but if I did, this guy would probably be on my short list. How he handles himself as a father, a man and an elected official in this situation is truly deserving of respect and admiration.

As partially recounted by Rocky Mountain News columnist Mike Littwin:

After Teck spoke, Tapia moved to the microphone. He didn't want to. He said the fact that his son is gay is no one's business.

But when the issue is on the floor and someone is calling your son an abomination, the state's business becomes your business. And in an intensely personal way.

"Senator Teck," he would say, "I know you're proud of your sons. And I'm proud of my son. But until you have that in your family . . . don't be talking about an abomination because I don't believe that's true."

Later, he would say why he was moved to go public.

"This is hard. I have never talked about it before. But I wanted to let people know they should look very deeply inside of themselves and ask what if their child came up to them, unexpectedly, and told them he was gay - which is what happened to me.

"My son was 20 years old, and I had no preconceived idea he was gay . . . I grew up in a strong Catholic background. We were told that being gay was not an acceptable way of life. After the initial shock, which was about five minutes, I told him I loved him, that he's my son and it's unconditional love.

"I wanted him to know he was choosing a difficult life, that he would be discriminated against - just the topic we were talking about today. He's Hispanic, but that pales against the discrimination when you're gay.

"He told me, 'I'm not choosing. That's who I am.' "

Tapia did make a choice. He embraced his son that day 10 years ago. And he embraced him again with his speech Wednesday on the Senate floor.

Exactly.