The outpouring of support after the spate LGBT suicides has been amazing. The latest and most moving part is a song by young Broadway performers "It Gets Better".
My homeboy, Dan Savage started the project with videos of gay and lesbian adults talking about how they survived harassment and worse and how life got better in the It Gets Better Project. (Many cool videos from all kinds of people)
President Obama recorded a video for the project, though the most moving one I've seen, besides the song, is a long video by a member of the Ft. Worth city council, Joel Burns, where he talks about bullying and a suicide attempt before it got better for him.
I started my career in 1981 working at Seattle Counseling Services for Sexual Minorities. If these resources had been around then (the internet, U-Tube, celebrities supporting gay teenagers to stay alive) I would have spent less time consoling grieving parents and friends and dealing with clients' failed suicide attempts. Back then, kids were routinely kicked out of their families for coming out. It still happens, but Oprah, Ellen, Rosie, and the increasing acceptance of gay people as human beings, legally and socially, has made this country a much healthier place to grow up gay, bi, or trans. Thank God.
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