Articles tagged with: It Gets Better
About those Old Navy “Pride” t-shirts
The LGBT blogosphere was all abuzz yesterday about major retailer Old Navy’s partnership with the It Gets Better Project to sell Pride 2011 t-shirts at all Old Navy stores, including in Anchorage and Fairbanks. But today it turned out that only 26 of its 1,000+ stores will sell the tees. What gives?
Bent News, 5/26/11: Roger Ailes finds us skeeeeeery!
A Gallup poll update on American attitudes about gays and lesbians, how to help Joplin LGBT tornado victms, Moscow Pride, Fox News president Roger Ailes is skeeeeered, and more from the past couple of days in today’s Bent News.
Gay/lesbian youth are doing better than you think, says Ritch Savin-Williams
LGBT youth are a lot stronger and more resilient than we usually give them credit for. That’s what Dr. Ritch C. Savin-Williams of Cornell University said this past Monday as a guest on Line One: Your Health Connection on KSKA, Anchorage’s public radio station. The program can now be downloaded or listened to online.
It Gets Better, the book: A “message in a bottle” to LGBT youth
Not all kids have access to YouTube. And so the It Gets Better Project’s message of hope for LGBT youth is now in a book: time, now, to get it into every library.
AFL-CIO: It Gets Better
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka speaks out against discrimination in the workplace and in support of the It Gets Better Project. He connects anti-gay school bullying to job discrimination, and encourages us to Make It Better by standing together for fairness and equality. (For a local example of this message, the Alaska AFL-CIO is working to unseat anti-worker & anti-gay Rep. Kelly.)
Watch:
Obama: It Gets Better. Dan Savage: Thanks, now Make It Better
Over 10 million people viewed the It Gets Better project started by columnist Dan Savage, millions participated in Spirit Day events wearing purple to raise awareness of anti-gay bullying, and thousands attended vigils for the gay teens who killed themselves recently. Yet the suicides continue, with another gay teen taking his life this week.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton uploaded an It Gets Better message on Tuesday, and President Obama followed with his message on Thursday. They are strong messages against prejudice and in support of LGBT youth.
Clinton’s video was appreciated as the highest level government official to join the project at the time, while Obama’s message sparked anger in the LGBT community because the good words are contradicted by his lack of action on behalf of gay rights.
Watch President Obama’s It Gets Better video:
The It Gets Better project is about kids, anti-gay bullying and suicide prevention. This is the first time a sitting president has told gay youth that there is nothing wrong with them. He is a good speaker and his message can reach many people, including those who might not have heard this kind of message before and those who have been told otherwise. A speech like this from the president has the ability to save lives, and that’s what the It Gets Better project is all about.
Now it’s time to follow those words with deeds that actually make it better for LGBT youth and adults.
On Friday, Dan Savage responded to President Obama’s video, voicing the mixed feelings expressed by the LGBT community:
Thanks to Dan Savage and his husband for creating a project that brings national attention to the problem of anti-LGBT discrimination and the harm it causes our youth and our society.
UA faculty & staff: It Gets Better!
Alaska is joining the It Gets Better project! University of Alaska Fairbanks faculty and staff are uploading It Gets Better videos to Kate Wattum’s new YouTube channel and inviting faculty and staff from across the UA system to participate in the LGBT suicide prevention project.
There are 5 videos so far, and three more on the way. Project organizer Kate talks about struggling to come out in her 20’s as a student at UAF, and introduces the UA: It Gets Better project:
Visit the UA: It Gets Better channel and watch the other videos:
- Jeanne Laurencelle talks about the (sometimes) long process of self-acceptance.
- Pete Pinney, UAF staff and long time member of PFLAG, talks about leaving his home town to discover a new life in Alaska.
- Joy Morrison describes a climate of acceptance at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
- Jerry Farnam talks about being bullied in high school and learning to come to terms with his sexuality.
Do you want to participate? Contact Kate.
Dan Savage: "It Gets Better"
Savage Love columnist Dan Savage, who spoke to sold out crowds at UAA two years in a row, has a new video project to give hope to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer youth who are harassed for being different and remind them that there is life after high school – and it can be great!
It started when Savage wrote a column about a gay teenager in Indiana who killed himself:
Billy Lucas was just 15 when he hanged himself in a barn on his grandmother’s property. He reportedly endured intense bullying at the hands of his classmates—classmates who called him a fag and told him to kill himself. His mother found his body.
Nine out of 10 gay teenagers experience bullying and harassment at school, and gay teens are four times likelier to attempt suicide. Many LGBT kids who do kill themselves live in rural areas, exurbs, and suburban areas, places with no gay organizations or services for queer kids.
“My heart breaks for the pain and torment you went through, Billy Lucas,” a reader wrote after I posted about Billy Lucas to my blog. “I wish I could have told you that things get better.”
I had the same reaction: I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes. I wish I could have told Billy that it gets better. I wish I could have told him that, however bad things were, however isolated and alone he was, it gets better.
But gay adults aren’t allowed to talk to these kids. Schools and churches don’t bring us in to talk to teenagers who are being bullied. Many of these kids have homophobic parents who believe that they can prevent their gay children from growing up to be gay—or from ever coming out—by depriving them of information, resources, and positive role models.
Why are we waiting for permission to talk to these kids? We have the ability to talk directly to them right now. We don’t have to wait for permission to let them know that it gets better. We can reach these kids.
So here’s what you can do: Make a video. Tell them it gets better.
I’ve launched a channel on YouTube—www .youtube.com/itgetsbetterproject—to host these videos. My normally camera-shy husband and I already posted one. We both went to Christian schools and we were both bullied—he had it a lot worse than I did—and we are living proof that it gets better. We don’t dwell too much on the past. Instead, we talk mostly about all the meaningful things in our lives now—our families, our friends (gay and straight), the places we’ve gone and things we’ve experienced—that we would’ve missed out on if we’d killed ourselves then.
[snip]
We can’t help Billy, but there are lots of other Billys out there—other despairing LGBT kids who are being bullied and harassed, kids who don’t think they have a future—and we can help them.
They need to know that it gets better. Submit a video. Give them hope.
Dan Savage and his husband Terry talk about being bullied in high school for being gay and how their lives got so much better as adults:
Do you have a good story to tell about how life got better for you as an adult? They want to hear your story of How It Got Better!
It would be great to get some more videos that include more than one person. Gay couples, groups of friends, straight people and their gay friends. And we have lots of videos from folks who are focusing on what they suffered—which absolutely should be touched on. But it would be great to see some more videos that give young gay kids a picture of the lives they could make for themselves if they just hang in there… So if you decide to make a video, don’t just share your pain. Share your joy too.
There are dozens of videos listed as favorites on the It Gets Better YouTube site, and now cities are joining the project.
San Francisco was the first city to respond with an “It Gets Better” video. Check it out:
If you’re in Alaska and you make an “It Gets Better” video, please send the link to Bent Alaska so I can post it here as well.
There’s a big beautiful world out there waiting for you. It gets better. Trust me.
