One year ago, Billy (William) Lucas, a 15-year-old from Greensburg, Ind., was found dead in a barn at his grandmother’s home — he had hanged himself, because, according to classmates, he was tormented for years because other kids thought he was gay.
Dylan
Billy took his own life just hours after fellow students told him he didn’t deserve to live.
Lucas was not an isolated victim in a spate of LGBTQ of adolescent and young adults in 2010 killing themselves. There were nearly fifteen plus highly publicized news accounts of young persons who committed suicide because they were gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
Lucas’ death though seemed to strike a chord that raised a national sense of awareness in the media and public that a pandemic was killing at risk LGBTQ youth and young adults.
The death toll seemed to mount weekly, prompting Seattle columnist Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller — alarmed and angered by these deaths — to create a YouTube video to send a message to young LGBTQ youth at risk that they needed to persevere, that there was hope, and that life does get better.
The “It Gets Better” video went viral and produced a reaction that ultimately led to literal thousands of “It Gets Better” videos from persons from every walk of life, queer and straight alike, all conveying the same message of hope. Noteworthy were contributions from political figures, professional athletes, entertainment celebrities, and even the CEO’s of major corporations.
Critics charged that Savage’s approach was little more than a feel good band-aid and questioned the value of Savage’s efforts. There were negative aspects as the so-called christian family values organizations railed against the campaign, referring to the It gets Better videos as attempts by “homosexual activists” to indoctrinate America’s youth.
The president of the Washington D.C. based Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, went so far as to label the video contributions by President Barack Obama, the First Lady, Vice-President Joe Biden and senior administration officials hosted on the official White House website as “disgusting.”
Despite the criticism, the video campaign morphed from Savage’s initial YouTube campaign into a non-profit organization dedicated to stemming the tide of suicide by LGBTQ youth, sponsoring a movement and a continuing effort to spread the messages in the videos.
Jim Burroway, editor of the LGBTQ blog, Box Turtle Bulletin, had published the question Friday, “Ever Wonder Whether Those “It Gets Better” Videos Have Ever Helped Anyone?”
According to Burroway, one young gay teen named Dylan answered the question in a video response two weeks ago to an “It Gets Better” video posted by a Northern California police officer and his husband.
Dylan’s video is an example that the campaign’s message of hope is indeed being received. Watch:
And here is the “It Gets Better” video by Jay and Brian that helped Dylan realize that it does, in fact, get better:
More of Jay and Bryan’s videos are at their YouTube channel, Gay Family Values.
Filed under: Living
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I am so glad for you.
I can’t help feel this is just a smaller version of the “American Dream”. Sure, it can get better for a fortunate few, but what about the rest of us for whom life is still hard and cold and dark despite all our efforts? I’m 24, and things have not gotten better at all. For me, watching videos and reading articles like these only make things seem more unfair. Inequality is built into our society; all this pain and suffering is inevitable, and all this campaign seems to say is, “That’s just part of life, so deal with it.” We cannot afford to passively excuse these problems. We cannot justify hardship by telling people to just suck it up.
They cannot always wait for” it to get better”…it takes very proactive concerned parents and activists to push things–to make it better tomorrow, not in a couple years.
great reply vid, BUT THIS KID NEEDS TO CLEAN HIS ROOM !!!!!
this is fantastic.
Wonderful.
Crap
It never get better
One person alive beats cynicism every time.
wow! :-)
That kind of attitude doesn’t help the new generation we should give them hope not discourage them.
I am also 24 years old. I am serving in the military as well. I can say that life has been difficult and I have shared a lot of the same pains others have as far as coming out and being gay in general. Sure, the world climate for gays is not ideal, but we are pressing on through these times. We are charged with a challenge. We are lucky that there are those who fought it for us before we were here as well. Whether or not some choose to see it, the world is getting better. I believe it with all of my heart; and as a gay man serving in the military, I have noted the trend changing not just in the military but in my life as well. The process is slow to show forward progress and maybe we sometime have to take a step back… but the truth is that our attitude and the choices we make today will change the future for all of us. My advice is don’t give up, because not only does it get better… it will continue to do so as long as we choose to let it.
@Ben Kleyn: Do you feel depressed? Do you ever think of harming yourself? If so, have you seen a physician about these kinds of things? Are you on anti-depressant meds? Are you currently seeing a counselor? If you are on anti-depressants, do you consume alcohol and/or other drugs? Alcohol is a depressant as are other kinds of drugs as well. If you are depressed and not seeing a physician, I encourage you to see one. I’ve been on anti-depressants for a long time and I can tell you that they work. If you drink alcohol and are depressed, I support your efforts to stop drinking. If you are not clinically depressed, I support your efforts to think about the positive things in your life. We all have positive things going on if we only focus on them. What’s important is for us “victims” to turn ourselves into “survivors.” It’s important to turn adversity into advantage. Adversity is a part of life, unfortunately, but we CAN turn adversity to our advantage. That’s what life is all about. People out here in cyberspace care about you, Ben. I’m a “people out here” and I care very much.