FYS: Storytelling, Identity, and Social Change - It Gets Better Project lyrics

It Gets Better Project (The following is an excerpt from an interview between Annie Corrigan, the interviewer, and Dan Savage, talking about his new book, Savage Love. It was posted in Kinsey Confidential). Annie Corrigan - "Do you think we'll see gay marriage across the country in your lifetime?" Dan Savage – "I think we'll be surrounded in my lifetime. I think we're going to see full civil equality for gay and lesbian people, also known as marriage rights and everything else in all of Mexico, most of Latin America, all of Canada, before we get it here. Because as I like to say, Australia got the convicts and Canada got the French and we got the Puritans. And we will be wrestling with them always.” In the idea of creating a better world for the LGBT community, Dan Savage along with Terry Miller founded the internet-based project and charitable organization “It Gets Better” on December 10, 2010. LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bis**ual and transgender, and is commonly used to in place of the word "gay." More recently, the word "queer" has been added, in place of those who are still questioning their s**uality, making LGBT: LGBTQ. This organization, It Gets Better, was created to promote the foundation of an inclusive community which also allowed for social diversity. In May 2011, the project developed on the Internet via YouTube videos. The videos inspired hope to gay youth when facing hara**ment by peers and to stay strong even in the face of adversity. They also use other media resources in order to reach a wider audience and convey their message of hope (through MTV, Logo, or radio stations). “[T]he idea behind the project was for gay adults to talk to queer kids about our lives to give them hope for their futures” says Dan Savage. The project started because of the number of gay teens who have committed suicide, but the direct cause was the suicide of Billy Lucas. Billy was a 15-year old freshman in Indiana who had been hara**ed and continuously called a “f*g” at school. The term "f*g" is short for "f*ggot" and is used negatively when referring to a gay man. Billy hung himself in his barn and was found dead the next morning by his mother. One example that justifies the project's mission statement that things get better, is the video with the Google employees. This video shows a few employees who explain their experience growing up as lesbian, gay, bis**ual or transgender. In this video, people also talk about how people treated them as a teenager and how things have changed over the years. One quote that really stands out is when a young man says, “So the thing about things getting better is that it doesn't just happen once. Like its not one day you wake and you go, oh my god, things are better. Things keep getting better over and over and in really small ways.” This quote shows that things will not suddenly change in the blink of an eye. However, the more comfortable you get with yourself and the more confident you are with who you are, things will slowly get better. Researchers have found that eight out of ten students have been verbally hara**ed at school, four out of ten students have been physically hara**ed and six out of ten students feel unsafe at school because of their s**uality. That is a huge number and we must do everything we can to stop this. To make a difference, the founders of this organization as well as those in charge of the project encourage us to contribute to the project by signing a pledge. After doing that, we are redirected to a page that allows us to buy gifts in their store. We are also encouraged to donate, record, share our story, buy and share the book, and stay connected.