When I was living in New York I met Tom Duane a few times. He was then a City Councilperson, and the only openly-gay City officeholder (AFAIK). Nice guy, very active, also openly HIV-positive. Someone to look up to in our community.
Fast-forward 20 years. He’s now a State Senator in New York—not a particularly well-thought-of category of person nowadays. Well, he made a speech in the State Senate about his bill to limit the amount of rent people with HIV and on public assistance must pay to 30% of their monthly income. It’s 21 minutes of power, folks. You must watch this speech.
Oh, and at the end he got a standing ovation, and the bill passed. What a fighter he is! He should run for governor of New York.
Now that is an impassioned speech! There’s passion, there’s conviction, you can see and feel the truth in it.
This is a speech worth thumping your chair for, if you’re an MP sitting in parliament, not some drivel delivered by some butch lesbians in denial
I’d have liked to see the speeches before he stood up which got him all worked up
sorry
but i dun think i wanna hear 22 mins of shouting
i know he is worked up…
but can’t he give a proper speech.. instead of shouting and repeating …..
Well, I don’t mind hearing him shout because I also lived through that period. I had a friend who was in quarantine because the nurses wouldn’t come into his room and wouldn’t feed him. I had probably around 50 friends die from AIDS in the 1980’s (I wasn’t as well connected as Duane). So I would like to shout too. And I found all 22 minutes of the clip riveting. Perhaps your mileage varied.