‘It Gets Better’: Wisdom From Grown-Up Gays and Lbians to Bullied Kids |

Contents:

• GAY (SO)
• DO 'IT GETS BETTER' MAKE LIFE BETTER FOR GAY TEENS?
• A MSAGE TO GAY TEENS: IT GETS BETTER
• CAMPAIGN OFFERS HELP TO GAY YOUTHS
• ‘IT GETS BETTER’: WISDOM FROM GROWN-UP GAYS AND LBIANS TO BULLIED KIDS
• IT GETS BETTER | GAY PRI CLASSICS MEGAMIX

GAY (SO)

The It Gets Better Project is a nonprof anizatn wh a missn to uplift, empower, and nnect lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer youth around the globe. — cludg Seth Walsh, 13, and Billy Lus, 15 — spired the gay advice lumnist Dan Savage and his now-hband, Terry Miller, to do somethg. 21, 2010, Savage and Miller talked about the bullyg and rejectn they experienced as gay teens, and how life got better for them the years after high school.

The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavr Surveillance System recently found that lbian, gay and bisexual teens are more than four tim more likely to attempt suici, and that transgenr stunts are at a siarly high risk pared to their non-LGBTQ peers. S., 72 percent of Amerins said homosexualy should be accepted, pared to 49 percent 2007, acrdg to the Pew Rearch Center. The It Gets Better Project’s missn is to uplift, empower, and nnect lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth around the globe.

DO 'IT GETS BETTER' MAKE LIFE BETTER FOR GAY TEENS?

In this excerpt om Dyg to Be Normal: Gay Martyrs and the Transformatn of Amerin Sexual Polics, Brett Ktzsch explor the origs of the “It Gets Better” mpaign and how the suicis of Tyler Clementi and other young gay people opened a new nversatn about gay clivy the wir culture. This excerpt has been adapted om the September of 2010, after a strg of wily reported suicis by gay teenagers, sex advice lumnist Dan Savage and his hband Terry Miller gurated the It Gets Better vio mpaign.

In their llaborative vio posted to YouTube, the two men shared a siar story: as teenagers, their peers harassed them bee they were gay. By that time, more than fifty thoand people had created It Gets Better vios and lns more had watched the ttimonials Gets Better had near immediate succs, acrdg to Savage, bee of the untry’s reactn to a gay teenager’s suici the day after the first It Gets Better vio September 22, 2010, Rutgers Universy hman Tyler Clementi jumped to his ath om the Gee Washgton Bridge after his roommate tweeted that he had spied on Clementi when he was engaged a sexual act wh another man. In historilly unprecented ways, media mentators sisted that the untry need to addrs anti-gay bullyg and the stigma many LGBT teenagers faced.

Effectively, the natnal attentn on Clementi’s suici and the It Gets Better Project revealed that although some LGBT and, particularly, gay Amerins had achieved greater visibily and legislative gas by 2010, many gay, queer, and transgenr youth still felt an overwhelmg sense of rponse to It Gets Better om policians, celebri, and average cizens revealed that many heterosexuals viewed Clementi’s ath as a tragedy the untry need to addrs.

A MSAGE TO GAY TEENS: IT GETS BETTER

Whereas fifteen years earlier, many straight Amerins associated gay men wh ath bee of AIDS, by 2010, the nnectn between gays and ath was not taken as a given. By 2010, whe, genr-nformg gays like Clementi appeared to be on the precipice of full social cln the Uned Stat. She warned, “As a gay woman of lor, I jt want to let the youth know that kd of don’t get better...

Journalist and sex-advice lumnist Dan Savage posted a vio on YouTube which he and his hband talked about the challeng of growg up gay. Their aim was simple -- to send a msage to Amerin teenagers g out as gay, lbian, bisexual, or transgenr (LGBT) that their stggl wouldn’t last forever.

I was obvly gay and some kids didn't like that, and I did get harassed, " he says the vio. Seth Levy, a lawyer who works wh the It Gets Better project, says that first vio quickly spired a flood of siar vio ttimonials om gays and straights eager to lend their support.

CAMPAIGN OFFERS HELP TO GAY YOUTHS

“I don't know what 's like to be picked on for beg gay, " Obama says his rerdg. "And the are often workplace environments that are not the iendlit for gay people. It’s a msage, he says, that has likely ntributed to softeng the bate over gay marriage at a time when the U.

Some prefer to intify as gay women, and some lbians also intify as non-bary. The acronym for “lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr” (sometim seen as “GLBT”). In the past, queer was a negative or pejorative term for people who are gay, and th is sometim disliked.

(NOTE: Avoid g the term “homosexual.

‘IT GETS BETTER’: WISDOM FROM GROWN-UP GAYS AND LBIANS TO BULLIED KIDS

” Bee of the clil history of the word, many feel that the term suggts that gay people are somehow diseased or psychologilly/emotnally disorred.

So many of the gay and queer muny have heard the mantra, “ gets better.

IT GETS BETTER | GAY PRI CLASSICS MEGAMIX

Homophobia seeks to mimize and dimish our lived existence.

But even if a gay man refut that a te gay muny exists, what’s ually salient throughout the stori is a sire for their to be muny. No matter whether you wnsed the HIV/AIDS epimic (or weren’t born yet), no matter whether you grew up wh posive mols of other gay men (or didn’t), and no matter how acceptg your parents were (or weren’t), all gay men share the mon experience of beg different. Organizatns exist such as a lol chapter of Gays For Good, which mobiliz LGBTQ+ volunteers the broar muny to promote diversy, foster cln, and strengthen muni, and also sports leagu such as Varsy Gay League, the natn’s largt LGBT recreatnal sports league, which offers events and tournaments year-round.

In many ci, simply Google your tert – guar, hikg, climbg, yoga – and “gay, ” and maybe you’ll fd activy-based queer muni. San Francis AIDS Foundatn offers siar social servic such as the Elizabeth Taylor 50-Pl Network, which support gay, bisexual and trans men ag 50 and olr who survived the HIV/AIDS epimic; Black Brothers Esteem (BBE), for Black and Ain Amerin muny members; and Lato Programs, for members of the Latx muny.