Joel Burns (politician)
| Joel Burns | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Fort Worth City Council from the 9th District | |
|
In office January 8, 2008 – July 15, 2014 |
|
| Preceded by | Wendy Davis |
| Succeeded by | Ann Zadeh |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
February 4, 1969 Fort Worth, Texas |
| Spouse(s) | J.D. Angle |
| Alma mater | Texas Wesleyan University |
| Profession | realtor |
| Committees | Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee, Economic and Community Development Committee, Infrastructure and Transportation Committee |
| Website | http://www.joelburns.com/ |
Joel Burns (born February 4, 1969) is an American politician. A city councilman for District 9 in Fort Worth, Texas, he received extensive press attention in October 2010 after speaking at a council meeting about the issue of suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth, as part of Dan Savage's It Gets Better campaign.
Burns announced on February 11, 2014 that he was resigning his seat on Fort Worth City Council to pursue a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A special election to succeed him was held in May, with a runoff scheduled for June 21 in which Ann Zadeh, a former city planner, defeated attorney Ed Lasater.
In his speech, which was subsequently released on the Internet as a video, Burns spoke about his own experience as a 13-year-old boy facing bullying at school in Crowley, Texas because of his sexual orientation. At one point in the video, he broke down and struggled to push forward with his prepared speech, eventually opting to skip a few lines. In subsequent media coverage, he confirmed that the section he skipped included an acknowledgement that he too had considered committing suicide because of the harassment he was facing.
The speech resonated throughout the Internet in a matter of minutes after Gawker.com had first reported the clip on its Gawker.TV website. Shortly thereafter, Burns held his first television interview on the subject with CNN's Ali Velshi, after the show aired the thirteen-minute YouTube clip in its entirety, an unprecedented occurrence for a major daytime news program. One day later, Burns and his speech was featured on scores of national and international news media, as well as NPR's All Things Considered. In under one week, the clip had garnered over one and a half million views, ultimately leading to Burns' in-studio interview with Matt Lauer on NBC's Today Show as well as an appearance on the popular Ellen DeGeneres talk show. As of early August 2014, the clip has sustained over 2.9 million hits, making it one of the most-watched videos in the 'It Gets Better' campaign.
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