Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 28, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, September 16, 2011 Page: 27 of 120
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Joel Bums: The difference a speech makes
Joel Burns
When Fort Worth City Councilman
Joel Burns followed his heart and
spoke at a council meeting about
his experiences as a bullied gay
teen, the nation listened — and,
he hopes, it helped make things
get better
DAVID TAFFET I Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com
When Joel Burns made a speech to the Fort
Worth City Council about his experiences being
bullied as a teenager, he had no idea the kind of
impact his words would have on people around
this country.
But a year later/when organizers of the Alan
Ross Texas Freedom Parade chose "It Only Gets
Better," as the parade theme, Burns was the obvi-
ous choice for honorary grand marshal.
Burns said that his husband, J.D. Angle, calls
the day Burns spoke at the council, "the day I
blew up our lives*
In some ways, that speech also blew up Fort
Worth City Hall.
Burns received so many emails in the days fol-
lowing his emotional speech that the city had to
replace its email server. The phone system was so:
overwhelmed that it also had to be replaced.
And Burns' office was so busy answering calls
and replying to messages from teens from across
the country who were bullied that the mayor's of-
fice Was running messages to him.
Honorary Grand Marshall
During a speech at the recent national conven-
tion of LEAGUE, the LGBT employee resource
group for AT&T, Burns joked about what he
learned from his sudden celebrity: "Between Ellen
[DeGeneres] and Matt Lauer, Ellen's the better
kisser," he said.
But on a serious side, Burns recalled receiving
a torn piece of paper from a teen. It was what
would have been the rest of a suicide note, which
the teen decided not to finish after seeing Burns'
video.
"This is what remains of the note I left my
roommate. Thank you," the young man wrote to
Burns.
Burns said that he wishes he could go back in
time and tell his 13-year-old self that it really does
get better.
He said that he believes that as human beings,
we are drawn to bold action. But during our lives
we tamp that impulse down. We learn that there
are sometimes consequences and so we decide
not to speak out, he said.
As a councilman, "My job is to fill potholes/'
Burns said. "That's what I'm supposed to do."
But last year he started hearing about young
people taking their lives. He mentioned Asher
Brown in Houston and a teen in Indiana who
hung himself in his family's barn. Then came an-
other suicide in California, then Zack Harrington
who killed himself after hearing anti-gay hate
speech at a city council meeting in Norman, Okla.
"Someone should do something about this/
Bums said he told himself.
The Fort Worth City Council meets on Tuesday
evenings with pre-council meetings held through-
out the day. When Burns decided to tell his story
he told Angle, who advised against it.
"But I remember what it was like to be 13 and
SPEECH, Page 28
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Nash, Tammye. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 28, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, September 16, 2011, newspaper, September 16, 2011; Dallas, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth239185/m1/27/: accessed May 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.