She said not to feel sorry for her losses, but to instead be grateful to be alive. This, from a woman who almost died this year. (Image via video still)
At her Netherlands Celebration Tour stop, Madonna gave a five-minute speech about how AIDS revealed itself to NYC in the early '80s, remembering holding her best friend's (Martin Burgoyne) hand and encouraging him to let go when it was time, and talking about the hundreds of people she lost.
I like the tone of this speech. It is angry. Madonna is still angry about this. And she's even angrier that many people have no idea this happened so recently, or are “forgetting” it.
She's a true AIDS warrior and queer ally — or just plain queer, depending on if you count being an undeclared bisexual who has absolutely had passionate sex with some women. What other big gay icon speaks up like this about AIDS anymore?
NYT Piece on Madonna's AIDS-Driven “Live to Tell” Performance
And yet, some young gay fan on Twitter thought it would be funny, so he snipped the part where she was describing the prevailing mentality at the time — “they're faggots, they deserve to die” — and posted that, and it's gotten almost a million views from people who are gleeful that EVEN MADONNA now believes this, and/or from people whining that it's wrong for her to use the word “faggots.” Give me a fucking break. The F-word is ugly, but it's not the N-word, and Madonna has every right to use it — and uses it here effectively, to shake the fuzz out of people's eyes.
Really terrible behavior, but it kinda fits with Madonna talking about a generation of the best and brightest gay men being wiped out. I guess that's what's left, young gay men who call themselves boujeeasshoe, stick a Palestinian flag (or whatever else is the latest trend) on their profiles and make a joke about an AIDS speech ...