Dan Savage has launched the It Gets Better Project. It’s a growing collection of videos directed at isolated, despairing GLBT teenagers to let them know that it will really get better. Go add one if you like. Or pass it on to someone who might want to. Or who needs to see it. And remember its existence in case you meet someone who does.
2 thoughts on “For GLBT teens”
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Feminist Philosophers 
I like this project, but I am slightly troubled by one aspect of it. Quite a lot of the videos stress that if you’re living in Small Town, Nowhere things get better, because when you are an adult you can move to California or New York. While this may indeed be an encouraging thought for GLBT teenagers in distress, I’m worried this may send the wrong message that GLBTs should confine themselves to these special locations.
Good point, M. There are plenty of small, suburban/rural towns in California (and, I imagine, New York) that are thoroughly homophobic and horrible for LGBTQ teens; I grew up in one. At the same time, same-sex marriage is recognized in Iowa.
Without watching the videos, this is sheer speculation, but perhaps the point they’re trying to make is that not everyplace is like Homophobic Small Town; if you can just make it through high school, you can leave (maybe for California; maybe for Chicago; maybe for Des Moines) for someplace that’s at least tolerant of LGBTQ folks, and perhaps even has a thriving and welcoming LGBTQ community.