If you’ve got twenty minutes, watch Sen. Thomas Duane’s speech on the New York Senate floor. At 3am, the openly gay HIV-positive commanded the attention of his colleagues with a, let’s say, “spirited” message about how he can “save lives.” Duane’s demand: Cap “shelter costs” (rent and utilities) at no more than 30 percent of income for those with HIV and AIDS, whose incomes could be better spent on live-saving drugs. Was his speech responsible for the bill’s passage of 52-1? Perhaps. But it’s worth listening to for Duane’s colorful reliving of the 80s AIDS epidemic — and seeing a politician not just stand up for what he believes in, but for standing up for the well-being of average citizens.
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Sen. Thomas Duane’s Absolutely Amazing Senate Floor Speech on AIDS
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Cr8nguy
Duane is NOT a U.S. Senator and that speech was not given on the floor of the US Senate. He IS a NY State Senator and gave that speech in the NY Senate chamber.
TANK
@Cr8nguy:
I know, right!
Anywayz, this was really…corny. Is it just me, or would this state senator make a great drag performer?
ioni
Yep, I heard it all – it was amazing.
But at some stages I was thinking that he did got carried away – it may have beem too spirited, almost histerical.
But the Bill passed.
SM
Queerty should learn to fact check…again…and learn their United States Senators.
TANK
@SM:
ANd you should learn how to stfu and stop defending bigots.
Mr. Cox
You should all be ashamed of yourselves! This speech is important and right on everything!
It is time to stand up to the Christian terrorists and Evangelical Nazis who have been pushing for fascism against gays for years. These people want to see gays and lesbians exterminated in concentration camps and believe that taxpaying law abiding citizens should be shot in the streets.
denguyfl
As moving as this speech was, it is the standing ovation that he got at the end that made the hair on my arms stand up. Please watch the WHOLE thing.
Tom
Amazing? He screeched like a harpy and barely made sense! Instead of making a case for the bill and how it relates to a lack of services and affordable health care for HIV/AIDS patients specifically and a huge and disproportionate number of LGBT Americans in general, he seemed to be demanding and threatening he get his way because 20 years ago it was a horrible, scary and unjust experience. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled for my fellow HIV+tives that they won’t have to use up almost all of their benefits on rent, but this was hardly a stirring speech. And despite what Pillsbury Duane-Boy went through in the 80’s, he looks like he hasn’t met a T-Cell he hasn’t covered in syrup and eaten now.
homofied
The net effect of this stupid legislation will be that out of the closet gay men will be discriminated against in housing — including when their landlord is gay his or herself. No property owner will rent to someone who has a bizarre legal right to a rent subsidy on the back of the landlord for a particular disability. Its outrageous.
InExile
If only our US Senators like Barney Frank would stand up for equality like this State Senator stood up for people with HIV. I don’t think any of them do, and that is part of our problem.
galefan2004
@homofied: That was my first thought as well. Capping rent for people with HIV is all well and good if the state is going to step up and pay the rest of the rent. However, that most likely will not happen, and no one is going to rent to someone with capped rent when the rest of the money just isn’t going to come. Specialized shelters aren’t going to be able to stay open if they can’t collect their actual fees. Not to mention, this is creating a specialized class which doesn’t fly well in the face of “all men are created equal” that this country was founded on. I don’t honestly see this law surviving its counters in the court system.
scott ny'er
@galefan2004: @homofied: You guys do bring up good points. If I had a rental property with a mortgage on it and I wasn’t getting reimbursed for the remainder of the rent, I’d be screwed and would not want to rent to HIV people for fear of losing my property.
galefan2004
@scott ny’er: The best part is that I’m almost willing to guarantee that NY has a law against refusing to rent to HIV+ people because its discrimination. This law is just set up to screw over the people that rent places, and will most likely be overturned on its first real challenge. That is why everyone voted for it. It makes them look good to the minority community, and they all know it will be overturned anyways, so this was basically a dodge. This was a way of recognizing the gay/lesbian community with lip service while dodging marriage.
Fitz
All these interventions on the price of rentals have some serious problems with limiting the motivation for investors to deal with residential real estate. I am not saying that poz people should get screwed on their rent. I am saying that landlords shouldn’t get screwed on their income. Maybe.. as un-PC as this is.. just MAYBE if you have a disease which keeps you from working, just MAYBE you can’t afford to live in the big city, the way you did when you were employed.
marius
@Tom:
“And despite what Pillsbury Duane-Boy went through in the 80’s, he looks like he hasn’t met a T-Cell he hasn’t covered in syrup and eaten now.”
Nice flourish at the end. You should be proud of yourself.
bobito
@Fitz: Because we know how, like, TOTALLY supportive America (“the REAL America” according to Sarah Palin) is toward PWAs outside of the cities, right? It would also be “un-PC” to say MAYBE they should all just die already and get out of our fucking hair, wouldn’t it?
Not very empathetic, are you?
Fitz
@bobito: Grow up. I am saying that prime real estate is expensive, and that if you want investors to deal in residential property then you need to be reasonable. Private apartments are not public agencies. AND… public agencies are underfunded. The solution to this lack of social security is not to disincentivfy the rental market, it is to be supportive of appropriate benefit housing. (which, guess what, won’t be in SOHO or Noe Valley,etc)
I have buried more men with AIDS than you have probably known, including family members and lovers. SO FUCK OFF, I would HAPPY to slug you right into the ICU and beyond. You are WAY out of your league here, I gather. I was there in the early 80’s when a positive person couldn’t get a meal, a dentist, let alone meds. To accuse me of Eugenics after a lifetime and career dedicated to working with positive people is both insulting, and it robs the younger people of the balanced conclusions that us old queens (read: survivors of a plague) have to offer.
You are an idiot, and I would like to hurt you. Do you live in the Bay Area, by chance?
bobito
@Fitz: Fuck yourself, chump
galefan2004
@bobito: You are being an ignorant prick. I don’t think anyone that hasn’t lived through the times when HIV was more than just a set of pills you had to take has any real right to make a judgment call against someone that has. Fitz might not be the most PC here, but like in all cases where you deal with honesty, you can’t be PC and tell the truth. The truth is NOT PC. We need to get over this PC obsession when it renders unable to use honesty.
Quack
Just read on David Mixner’s blog that this site auro deletes any comment using the name of its ex-editor, Japhy Grant. Curious if that’s really true.
http://www.davidmixner.com/2009/07/mixners-five-favorite-lgbt-blogs.html
TANK
@Fitz:
I’m sick of you threatening people with physical violence, you big bully! Maybe we should settle this outside.
SM
@TANK:
If want to be a low class loser and tell someone to STFU…go look in the mirror and say it to yourself. IDIOT.
You act 3
TANK
@SM:
That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.
SM
@TANK:
Nah…it will be more fun when I can copy the comments your make to me on Queerty and put them along with the work I’ve done to raise tens of thousands of dollars for people with AIDS.
FU
TANK
@SM:
Because everyone should be aware of how grateful they OUGHT be that a heterosexual like you has deigned to talk at the homosexuals, telling them how grateful they should be for obama and all of the nothing he’s done for us.
We don’t need allies like you. And Again that’ll do, pig. that’ll do.
SM
@TANK:
Dude…You don’t know me at all. You are obsessed with me and think you know me but you are so far off base its laughable. Keep digging a hole. Don’t cry if you get called out on it.
Its your problem…not mine.
TANK
@SM:
Nah, it’s your problem, muffin top.
SM
@TANK:
Nah…its your problem. Queerty does not care about winning LGBT rights. They care about spinning drama, editing people, and trash talk for money. Has nothing to do with me.
I would donate to Senator Thomas Duane’s campaign fund in a heartbeat. He is not a United States Senator either.
You all post emotions and outburts as facts and then wonder whey you can never win your battles.
TANK
@SM:
where the hell would we be without you?
SM
@SM:
Tank…You call me as many names as you want. Who cares.
All those people Thomas Duane is talking about need better health care legislation passed in this country by Obama. Obama and the DNC have started running ads paid for by money from the DNC (you know the fund you all kick and scream about not donating too) going after the DEMOCRATS in Congress not supporting his agenda.
All the people who expect Obama to do all the work and not step up to the plate themselves are the problem with this country. The WHINERS.
IAmHeAsYouAreHe
The factual errors haven’t been corrected yet? It mistakenly gives the impression that our nation has the courage to elect an openly gay, positive, U.S. Senator.
TANK
@SM:
Again, where would we be without you to call us whiners who do nothing for ourselves? Thank goodness for you who has made sure that we’ve got our rights. Yay, you!
Alan
@Tom: I agree. The speech touches on a variety of important issues and disgraceful experiences, but the delivery is hysterical and rambling. Surely we can find a more articulate advocate.
SM
@TANK:
Dude…you can bitch like a baby all you want. Just don’t take the credit when LGBT earn full equality. You’ve wasted tons of time lashing out at me and I’ve been a huge supporter with my time, money and enery. Its not my fault you are an over emotional fool.
Obama has a strategy on many issues. Considering you would never get 10 votes for President of the United States. I would grow up.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/19/AR2009071901465.html?nav=rss_email/components
petted
@SM: Considering what we know for certain you spend your time doing, and at great length I might add, not to mention how you spend that time I think we’d all be better off without a sanctimonious ally. Talk is quite cheap as you’ve implied multiple times but that applies equally well to you as to anyone else on this board and quite frankly you seem to value your own opinion of yourself quite highly – I suggest you go outside enjoy the fresh air, meet some friends, make new ones, and stop acting like a prima donna, we’ll always love Cher more- we’ll ok some of us will 😉
@TANK: Have you seen Better Off Ted? Its fun I think you might enjoy it.
galefan2004
@SM: I hate to break it to you but AIDS is not a gay cause. The gay community takes it up much more than the straight community, but it affects both worlds. Don’t throw it up at us like we should be grateful you are attached to it.
jason
The 80’s AIDS “epidemic” was never a gay issue in its actuality. AIDS does not have – and nor will it ever have – the ability to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. No syndrome or disease has the ability to discriminate thus.
What simply happened is that the gay community used AIDS to build pity for itself. Highly promiscuous gay men with shockingly hedonistic lifestyles caught diseases which lowered their immune systems, and then sought pity for themselves.
What’s even worse is that these highly promiscuous gay men then sought to include all gay men under their umbrella of pity, as if somehow being gay made you more prone to catching diseases. Many monogamous, non-sleazy gay men found this to be highly insulting.
galefan2004
@jason: You have to be fucking kidding me. Seriously, you must not have grown up in a church where you were taught every Sunday that AIDS was god’s cure for the fagots. Gay men were branded with the AIDS rod not because they wanted to be but because of hedonistic homophobic asshole preachers that wanted to scream about them anyways. It started out as GRIDS for a reason, and its not because the gay population wanted it called that.
That being said, yes when men decide to fuck 10 guys a week even with protection they are opening themselves up to more of a risk than when a set of partners wants to fuck bareback after being together for months and knowing each others status. Yet the guys that want to fuck 10 guys a week will lambaste the partners for not using condoms and if the partners answer back that they fuck 10 guys a week that is seen as attacking them.
Tom
@jason: Wow, and you started out so promising after the first paragraph. I’m guessing from the rest of your post that you aren’t gay, if you are, please stop speaking “for” us because you have no idea what you’re talking about.
Also, you have absolutely no understanding or grasp of the history of HIV/AIDS in this country, nor how the epidemic played out in the 80’s. There are plenty of books, newspaper articles and even a couple of films about the subject and I suggest you read them before you embarrass yourself again with your shocking lack of knowledge.
Either that, or your an asshole.
Tom
I apologize. You’re an asshole.
galefan2004
@Tom: I think people like Jason would promote celibacy. He has no problem identifying as gay till it comes to the but sex. That is where he draws the line. Apparently, he thinks that sex just shouldn’t be had between gay men.
Schteve
Given his last sentence, I would think he merely considers himself one of the “monogamous, non-sleazy gay men”.
JR
… and the divisionism and ignorance continues!!! So, heterosexuals are not sluts??? I’m afraid that accusing gay hedonism for ‘God’s Wrath’ is mired in mid-evil conventions and is so backwards and primitive that it needs no further discussion except that I’m sure Jason is just secretly itching to be a whore!!!! The other’s who pick on the NY State Senator for his behavior, appearance and so on should also be ashamed little ass-monkeys! If you had the guts to get on that floor and say those things… Then you will not only be able to speak like a man; you would finally be one! And also, discriminating against anyone in an effort to refuse them housing is HIGHLY against the law and anyone who breaks anti-discrimination laws is liable to lose much more than the subsidized rent they would potentially get from a PWA. Opinions should also have thoughtful and educated dialogue to back them up, people! not ignorant bullshit and childish rants!
InExile
@jason: How old are you 12? How many of your old friends are still alive? How many funerals did you attend? How many people did you go visit in the hospital that never left? Some of us have no peers, they are dead.
GO TO HELL!
scott ny'er
@JR: yes, it’s against the law. But do you own rental property. It’s easy math… if your mortgage is say $1,000 and the capped rent is say $300, and the subsidizing doesn’t come thru… well you are out $700. Multiply that by 12 and it’s now $8,400. Now the bank is pissed and you should be fearful of losing that property.