Dan Savage's ''It Gets Better'' Project -- beautiful idea

Cafe Society
1

This is an awesome idea and I hope it gets tons of support and (positive) response. It Gets Better Project

Dan Savage (sex advice columnist, Savage Love) filmed a video with his husband to tell GLBT kids that life gets better, particularly after high school. I’d love to see more videos from happy, well-adjusted adults who went through hell, no matter what their sexuality, really.

“If you’re gay or lesbian, or bi or trans, and you’ve ever read about a kid like Billy Lucas and thought, “Fuck, I wish I could’ve told him that it gets better,” this is your chance. 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…”

Full description of the project and its roots in this week’s Savage Love column (3rd response). Content is often NSFW.

2

** soft little bump **

I just saw that column. Thanks for starting a thread, Beadalin - hope it inspires someone here* to post to it. When you’re going through adolescent hell, you hear way too much “These are the best years of your life!!1!” and way too little “It’ll get better soon, I promise.”

  • Before you think, “Purple! Why don’t *you * post? What are you, a lazy bitch?” I’m not a lesbian and thus outside the specific scope, and don’t have a videocamera or access to one. If I did, I’d post three seconds anyway: “It’ll get better, I promise.” Wish I had something more eloquent to say to these kids.
3

That’s very cool.

4

Dan’s video apparently drove some dust into my eye. Or something.

5

Perez Hilton also made a video, which was in the YouTube suggestions column when I viewed Dan’s video directly (as in, not from the project’s page). He mentions Dan’s project in the comments.

Perez is such a big mouth - I hope he figures out how to connect with Dan’s project page and in turn gets more big-name GLBT folks to make videos.

Spectacular idea. I hope it really takes off.

And…Dan’s kid is a CUTIE!!

6

It’s a good idea, and it’s a good message for a whole lot of high school kids in general, not just GLBT kids.

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Hell, I’m a big, strong, hairy straight guy and Dan’s column moved me to tears.

Yeah, I’m not gay, but I was relentlessly bullied in school. The only kid in my grade who had it worse than me was gay. It got better for me, but I have no idea if it got better for him.

8

I listened to his podcast, and hearing him describe the project and the reasoning behind it was a very moving experience. Thanks for doing this, Dan.

9

Wow, I really loved this video, and think Dan & Terry and their son are such a beautiful family.

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As the parent of a gay son who has been harassed and bashed many times I think this is wonderful.

Such a sweet and honest video with a really powerful message.

11

True. Knowing that high school was a blip on the radar helped me get through it (okay, this was pre-Facebook). I love this for gay teens, though, and I think it is much-needed, especially since I know a whole generation of gay city kids with cool parents who are actually surprised when people move to the city with horror stories about coming out (not to mention straight peeps who assume because Will & Grace is in syndication, everything’s fine!). Having the internet must help a little, but nothing’s the same as real-life role models and mentors.