{"id":11365,"date":"2010-10-06T11:06:44","date_gmt":"2010-10-06T18:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=11365"},"modified":"2010-10-06T11:06:44","modified_gmt":"2010-10-06T18:06:44","slug":"itgetsbetterproject","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=11365","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt Gets Better\u201d \u2014 A Grassroots Project For Helping LGBT Teens"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is one of hundreds of “It Gets Better” videos that have been put on YouTube in the last month.<\/p>\n


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The “Its Get Better” project was started by newspaper sex-advice columnist Dan Savage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Billy Lucas was just 15 when he hanged himself in a barn on his grandmother’s property. He reportedly endured intense bullying at the hands of his classmates\u2014classmates who called him a fag and told him to kill himself. His mother found his body.<\/p>\n

Nine out of 10 gay teenagers experience bullying and harassment at school, and gay teens are four times likelier to attempt suicide. Many LGBT kids who do kill themselves live in rural areas, exurbs, and suburban areas, places with no gay organizations or services for queer kids.<\/p>\n

“My heart breaks for the pain and torment you went through, Billy Lucas,” a reader wrote after I posted about Billy Lucas to my blog. “I wish I could have told you that things get better.”<\/p>\n

I had the same reaction: I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes. I wish I could have told Billy that it gets better<\/em>. I wish I could have told him that, however bad things were, however isolated and alone he was, it gets better<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But gay adults aren’t allowed to talk to these kids. Schools and churches don’t bring us in to talk to teenagers who are being bullied. Many of these kids have homophobic parents who believe that they can prevent their gay children from growing up to be gay\u2014or from ever coming out\u2014by depriving them of information, resources, and positive role models.<\/p>\n

Why are we waiting for permission to talk to these kids? We have the ability to talk directly to them right now. We don’t have to wait for permission to let them know that it gets better<\/em>. We can reach these kids.<\/p>\n

So here’s what you can do, GBVWS: Make a video. Tell them it gets better.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The response has been enormous. A couple of videos have come from celebrities, such as this video from Tim Gunn<\/a>, in which he discusses his own (fortunately failed) suicide attempt when he was a teen. But most are from ordinary LGBT people, some married, some not, who just want to let kids know it gets better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is one of hundreds of “It Gets Better” videos that have been put on YouTube in the last month. The “Its Get Better” project was started by newspaper sex-advice columnist Dan Savage. Billy Lucas was just 15 when he … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crossposted-on-tada","category-lesbian-gay-bi-trans-and-queer-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}