On this day in vegan history · August 19, 1970
Gary Yourofsky Is Born
The activist who would turn a blunt Georgia Tech lecture into the most-watched speech in Israeli internet history was born in Detroit on this day.
The facts
- Born
- August 19, 1970, Detroit, Michigan
- The speech
- "The Most Important Speech You Will Ever Hear," Georgia Institute of Technology, July 8, 2010
- Reach
- Millions of views online, translated into tens of languages
- Israel effect
- Reported vegetarian/vegan rate rose from about 5% to 13% after Hebrew-subtitled copies spread on social media
Gary Yourofsky was born on August 19, 1970, in Detroit, Michigan. Three decades later, in July 2010, he delivered a lecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology arguing for total animal liberation in plain, unsparing language. A recording of that talk went online, picked up subtitles in dozens of languages, and became a rite of passage for new vegans around the world, especially in Israel. Yourofsky had already spent years in direct-action activism, including jail time from a 1997 mink farm raid; the speech turned him into something else, a debate that refused to end.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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The video garnered millions of views and has been translated into tens of different languages.
Wikipedia, describing the spread of the 2010 Georgia Tech speech
Source: Wikipedia -
The fundamental rights of life, liberty and bodily integrity – rights that every person reading this piece demands or takes for granted – should not be exclusive to humans.
Gary Yourofsky, in a 2015 essay on his influence in Israel
Source: Animal Liberation Press Office
Why it still matters
The speech showed that a single confrontational video, with no ad budget and no institution behind it, could shift public opinion on animal rights faster than a campaign ever had, and new viewers still find it and argue over it today.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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