Dan Savage, the internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice columnist, has a message for gay teens struggling with their sexuality, discrimination and school bullying: “It gets better.”
The Seattle-based activist and author of Savage Love, launched a YouTube channel his week to encourage teens who are struggling with how others react to their sexual orientation.
The channel is largely in response to the suicide of Billy Lucas, a teenager from Indiana who was bullied by classmates.
“I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes,” Savage writes in this week’s column. “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.”
“Today we have the power to give these kids hope … But many LGBT youth can’t picture what their lives might be like as openly gay adults. They can’t imagine a future for themselves. So let’s show them what our lives are like, let’s show them what the future may hold in store for them.”
Each video on the “It Gets Better Project” channel will feature a role model sharing personal experiences that illustrate that life for gays and lesbians improves beyond high school. Savage and his husband Terry Miller have posted the first video, featured here:
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Future videos will be picked from user submissions.
Go to www.youtube.com/itgetsbetterproject for instructions for submitting a video.