Fred Prouser/Reuters
Forth Worth councilman Joel Burns and Lawrence O'Donnell at the GLAAD Awards in L.A. on Sunday.
We are now the proud recipients of a GLAAD Award for Outstanding TV Journalism Segment category. Lawrence accepted the award last night in Los Angeles with Joel Burns by his side.
Back in October, we told you about Burns, a city councilman in Fort Worth, and his teary plea to gay teens. His message was one of hope: it will get better. In a very emotional speech, he pleaded with bullied gay teens to re-think suicide as an option. At times, he even broke down and cried in the 12-minute appeal. We discussed the importance of Burns' personal message at length and conducted an exclusive interview Burns and his husband.
Please, watch the interview again (and bring the box of Kleenex). Share it with friends and help us keep Joel Burns' message alive.
Leave a Comment:
This was a wonderful piece when I watched it the first time. The impact it has on me is no less then the day I watched it a few months ago. Thank you Lawrence for the magnificent work you do and to those who share their very personal stories on your show.
Well done. Keep up the great work
And on a more teary note...
Lawrence, please. You're a good man. No one tries as hard as you do, and no one feels the way you do. It shows. Too much. It looks like you're under stress all the time. We all are, every last one of us. But this is serious stuff, these are serioius times, and this is serious business.
What happens right now at this point in our history will define the direction this country takes for the next 30 years. This is no time to make excuses for ourselves, to apologize for being ourselves. But it is time to recognize who we are, and what we can bring to the fight. And not giving up the high ground.
But that's exactly what you did, with Glenn Beck. By apologizing to the audience you may as well have been apologizing to him, personally. Think Keith would ever do that, or ever need to? Or Rachael, or Ed, or Chris, or anyone else in the lineup?
But you're absolutely right about one thing: empathy is not your strong suit. It never has been. It comes off contrived and whiny, and frankly looks downright phony. But once you surrender that "moral high ground" to Beck, Fox and the rest of the wing-nut crowd it makes it very hard to move this agenda forward, if not impossible.
And so Lawrence, I urge you, I implore you, I beg you...please...step away from the 8 o'clock time slot. For the good of the network, for the good of your audience, for the sake of the movement and, mostly, for your own peace of mind. Because these next few months are going to become absolutley brusing, and we cannot afford to lose the fight to preserve Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
So Please Lawrence, let Rachael have the 8PM slot. She is the network's strong suit now and needs to be the best, strongest face we can bring to arena. Your strength lies in the work you do, the support that you bring, calling out the facts as they are, and going face-to-face with the people that matter.
You and Ed Schultz, another passionate advocate for people's rights, would make a great team together. An expanded two-hour program at 9PM each night, focusing live on a provocative issue, one of you "live" and on the scene and the other in the studio coordinating the players and making the issues "Here and Now" for all of us.
I think LD is doing a great job & should be rewarded with more time on the air.
"absolutely bruising"
Sorry about the typo in my previous post.
Lawrence, I love what you are doing on your show and I also love that you are such a passionate and caring man, capable of emotion. Keep up the great work!!!
do not like any aspect of the topic!
simply go away then, there is nobody forcing you to watch
Congratulations. Outstanding TV journalism happens on The Last Word everyday. I`m a fan Larry. The program is unique. Intense, unrelenting intelligence that can be ferocious when facing down lies, ignorance and stupidity. I count on it for clarity.
Freedom of speech is sacrosanct in the U.S., but, of so often, it devolves into hate. This particular human potentiality needs reigning in. A good society promotes laws that protect and enhance the life of it’s citizens. Why is this form of assault not seen to be what it is; an assault! Ok, I need someone to explain to me why a hate speech law is incompatible with the U.S. guarantee on free speech. Freedom of speech does not equate to freedom to express hate.
Your right to promote your ideas can be accomplished through civility. Civility actually promotes the exchange of ideas. It creates a safe social environment. It is a good rule. For me, it presupposes a free, respectful exchange even between those who may despise one another`s ideas. We sometimes need laws to make people behave well towards one another.
I quote “the anti-Semitic outburst by designer John Galliano in Paris cost him his job at Christian Dior. It could cost him more that that – up to six months in prison and some $31,000 in fines if he’s convicted. That’s because French law allow for the prosecution of public insults based on religion, race, ethnicity or national origin (not yet gender) – hate speech, in other words. Germany, Poland, Hungary, Austria have passed hate legislation decades ago. Recently Canada, Mexico also have laws prohibiting hate speech against targeted, identifiable groups” Source Melissa Block, NPR.