A mother of the bride's wedding speech has impacted thousands on and offline. A clip of the speech posted to TikTok went viral as Maggie Hesketh, 30, married the love of her life. Her mother, Kelli Dalton, delivered a speech that she called the "gay agenda"—and left no dry eye in the house.
Dalton and Hesketh spoke to Newsweek about the inspiration for the speech, and how it went over with the not-all-affirming wedding guests. "I want to talk to you all tonight about the gay agenda," Dalton began her speech, waving a Pride flag. What followed was a series of quotes about parenting, acceptance and true love.
Dalton said that she has been poring over LGBTQ+ stories and advocacy ever since Hesketh came out. "I have become extremely passionate about addressing the oppression of this community and using my privileged voice to attempt to educate others," she said. "Being from a small southern town and very much raised in the Christian evangelical church, this has been quite a challenge with many of the people closest to me.
" Dalton said she felt the speech was a moment she "couldn't pass up" to talk to her community about LGBTQ+ rights. Some people at the wedding, she said, really needed to hear it. "Although most attendees were obviously affirming, I knew for a fact that some guests were there because they didn't want to miss it and did want to offer a level of support, but in no shape or form were they true allies or advocates," she said.
"I also knew, from getting to know many.