To help kick off the 2017 Pride season, international treasure Ian McKellen delivered “The Hope Speech,” a stirring oration written by Harvey Milk, originally delivered in San Francisco in 1977.
Milk’s words called out the persecution of gay people in the name of family values. The original speech implored people to come out publicly, a cry that has relevance to this day.
McKellen recreated it with the dramatic gusto for which he is famous. “Unless you have dialogue, unless you open the walls of dialogue, you can never reach to change people’s opinion,” McKellen has said.
As we enter this year’s Pride season, and to mark Harvey Milk Day, here’s that powerful speech again:
How about we take this to the next level?
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