Gay Fort Worth Texas Councilman Joel Burns Poignant Public Disclosure Continues To Resonate

Joel Burns, the openly gay Fort Worth, Texas city councilman whose address to Monday to council about bullying took on poignancy when Burns, who is openly gay told the chamber that at the age of 13 years old as an awkward adolescent he struggled with his sexual identity, and was himself bullied, told by a group of older teens he “was a faggot” and “should die.” Burns continued that “Coming out was painful, but life got so much better for me,” offering counsel to young gay men and women that “You will get out of high school and you’ll never have to deal with those jerks again if you don’t want to. You will find and you will make new friends who will understand you. And life will get so, so, so, much better. You will have a lifetime of happy memories if you allow yourself and give yourself the time to make them.” The reaction has been overwhelming, a nearly thirteen minute video of the testimony uploaded to YouTube (included at the source) has now been viewed over one million times, and today Burns appeared on the CBS Early Show on Saturday Morning saying that the response has surprised him “very much so,” but that “The goal for me was two-fold. One, to tell kids in Fort Worth or wherever they were watching, to give them hope in a dark time, that things will get better, but they just have to hang out and stay put long enough to make that happen. And also a message for the adults to remind them we have a role and responsibility, as adults, to make sure the school place and otherwise bullying our teens are facing is addressed. And so, that was the goal. It’s been an amazing couple of days since.”