by Rachel Somers Miles
In the vast sea of videos that is Youtube, American sex advice columnist, and author, Dan Savage has harnessed the potential power of online video to reach and support LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) youth with the It Gets Better Project.
After the suicide of yet another gay teenager in the United States, the victim of anti-gay bullying, of persistent homophobia, and wishing that he could offer support to LGBT teens, Savage has enlisted the possibilities of online video to speak directly to them, to give them hope, as he’s said, and to tell them that it does in fact get better.
On September, 21, 2010, Dan Savage and his husband Terry posted an 8-minute video on Youtube, telling their experiences of anti-gay bullying and violence in their teen years, how they met, their adoption of a child, and over-all, offering hope to LGBT youth through telling them that it in fact does get better. After creating a Youtube channel under the name of the project, they’ve openly invited others from all backgrounds to offer video messages of support to bullied and isolated LGBT teens. Around a thousand submissions have been posted, and on October 20, 2010, one million views had been reached.
Being featured on multiple internet news sites and TV news programmes, the It Gets Better Project has turned into a great success, ushering in personal video stories from LGBT adults about their experiences with anti-gay bullying as teens and how as adults their lives have improved, and stories of support from parents of bullied gay teens, friends and family of the LGBT community, known athletes and music stars, personal stories from gay employees of Facebook and Google, and even a message from the President of the United States, Barack Obama. This is not to say, as Savage has mentioned, that discrimination, violence and bullying doesn’t exist as an adult, but to use these videos as a way to tell gay teens that there is a community of supporters out there: to help stop LGBT youth from committing suicide.
While most urban centres in the Unites States have advocacy and support services for gay teens, many smaller towns and rural areas lack this kind of community support system, often resulting in un-checked violence and bullying towards gay youth, and intense isolation. Using the expanse of the internet to reach these teens, and video as a medium to be able to speak to them, the continuing success of the project is not only seen in the number of videos submitted, but, as it’s posted on the project’s blog, the number of letters being sent in from LGBT teens who are watching the videos, and hearing the messages of how It Gets Better.
For more information:
It Gets Better Project website: http://www.itgetsbetterproject.com/
It Gets Better Project Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/itgetsbetterproject
For extensive news and blog coverage of the project, search: “dan savage it gets better”