Sally Field and Her Gay Son Sam Team Up to Promote Civil Rights Bill That Protects LGBTQ Americans

In the ‘80s, Sally Field stood in front of America and accepted two Oscars. Today, she’s asking the country to support the Equality Act, a bill that would add LGBTQ protections to existing civil rights law and strengthening civil rights protections for other marginalized groups.

“This is change that isn’t just about the government,” Field, 72, says in a video for the Human Rights Campaign’s Americans for the Equality Act initiative. “It would be the government making such an important move to change how people think altogether.”

In the video, the actress video chats with her openly gay son Sam Greisman to talk about what the passing of this legislation would mean.

“If I or any other LGBTQ person got in their car and drove from L.A., where I am now, to D.C., their rights could change depending on whatever state they drove through,” Greisman, 31, says.

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Right now, 50 percent of LGBTQ Americans reside in one of the 30 states without statewide legal non-discrimination protections the LGBTQ community, meaning millions of people remain at risk of being fired, denied housing or refused a service because of who they are or whom they love.

“As long as I am upright, I will fight for this to be that Sam and everyone’s children and grandchildren and sisters and brothers will be protected in every state of the United States,” asserts Field, who joins Jamie Lee Curtis, Jane Lynch, Adam Rippon and other celebrities in supporting HRC’s Americans for the Equality Act campaign. The campaign will continue as the legislation is considered in Congress.