Gay Councilman's Plea to Bullied Teens Goes Viral

[cal04]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/10/15/us/AP-US-Gay-Councilman-Bullying.html?_r=1&hp

A city councilman in Fort Worth, Texas, has rocketed into cyberspace prominence in a video pleading with gay teens not to commit suicide and tearfully recounting his own ordeals as a bullied schoolboy.

Councilman Joel Burns made the appeal during a 12-minute speech to the council on Tuesday. In the speech, which was videotaped and put on YouTube, he says gay teens should give themselves a "chance to see how much life will get better."

By Friday afternoon, the video had received more than 500,000 hits on YouTube, and Burns was being lauded on social networking sites.

(video)
Joel Burns tells gay teens "it gets better"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax96cghOnY4&feature=related



Fort Worth City, thank you for electing Joel Burns!

[11 Bravo]

1. As I said on another thread, Joel Burns may be the most courageous man many of us ever encounter.

[lamp_shade]

2. CNN's Ali Belcher(sp?) played the whole thing this afternoon and then interviewed Burns.

It was a beautiful thing.

[ZombieHorde]

3. Wow, impressive video. Thanks for posting. nt

[Island Blue]

4. Wow. One of the most courageous political speeches

I've ever heard. I hope it changes many lives.

[cal04]

5. CNN talks to Joel Burns

Councilman spoke out for gay teens 'who might be holding gun tonight'
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/15/councilman.burns.gay.bullying/index.html?hpt=C1

(snip)
Burns told CNN in his first national interview Friday that he felt he had to say something because it was clear that not enough was being done to stem the crisis.

And as someone who dealt with the same issues, he wanted to share the advice he wished someone had told him as a child.

"The reality of it is, it gets better in ways you can never fathom as a 13- or 14-year-old. Times are dark, and you're either being harassed or bullied inside the school or outside the school. You have a household that may not accept you; there may be any kind of abuse around it," Burns told CNN.

"There's just no hope that there's life after your adolescence and after your teenaged years. I have often thought, wouldn't it be wonderful if I could go back to the me that existed as a teenager that really didn't think that the future was all that bright at times, and show him just the amazing, wonderful things that have happened in the course of my adult life?"

[malaise]

6. I just watched the video

and tears are streaming down my face.
Equality for all - that's the only way.