Words or support from the Poet Laureate, who recently phoned New York state Sen. Shirley L. Huntley (D-Queens), asking that she support marriage equality:

“I would ask every man and every woman who’s had the blessing of having children, ‘Would you deny your son or your daughter the ecstasy of finding someone to love?' To love someone takes a lot of courage. So how much more is one challenged when the love is of the same sex and the laws say, ‘I forbid you from loving this person’?”

Sen. Huntley says that while she enjoys Angelou's poetry, her opinion on same-sex marriage is unchanged. “If they gave me a million dollars, tax free, I just wouldn’t vote for it.”