“My wife and I did not raise four sons with the idea that three of them would have certain rights and that the fourth of them would be left out.”

His voice cracking, he says that he saw too much suffering and sacrifice for equality during the Second World War.

Citing the ovens at Buchenwald and Dachau, he says: “I have seen with my own eyes the consequence of a caste system and of making some people less than others or second class. Never again. We must have equal rights for everyone.