It Really Does Get Better

Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000176 EndHTML:0000010175 StartFragment:0000002433 EndFragment:0000010139 SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/annareese/Documents/ItGetsBetter.doc

Anna Reese

FemSt 80

2-22-12

It Gets Better

            While it’s relatively new, the It Get Better campaign has momentum.  It was started in 2010 by sex columnist Dan Savage, in response to the spike in LGBQT teen suicides and rampant bullying.  The website describes its mission, “The It Gets Better Project was created to show young LGBT people the levels of happiness, potential, and positivity their lives will reach – if they can just get through their teen years. The It Gets Better Project wants to remind teenagers in the LGBT community that they are not alone — and it WILL get better.”  It is a campaign with a beautiful message.  Anyone can make an It Gets Better videos, in fact there are thousands of uploads on YouTube with many celebrities making videos as well.  This project shows the strength and diversity of the LGBQT community.

            In her article “Homophobia: Why Bring it Up?” Barbara Smith writes about the need for different ethnic groups and genders to come together.  She describes an incident at a gay bar with a primarily African American attendance.  The police came and harassed the patrons.  Smith writes about the “isms’ of this situation, “As a Black woman, a lesbian, a feminist, and an activist, I have little difficulty seeing how the systems of oppression interconnect, if for no other reason than that their meanings so frequently affect my life” (Pg. 78).  There needs to be solidarity within the gay community.  This is what the It Gets Better campaign attempts to do.  In a New York times article titled, “Campaign Offers Help to Gay Youths, Brian Stelter explains, “Some say the videos also represent an important moment for the gay rights movement. The sharing of coming-out stories has long been a tool of solidarity among gays as ‘a way to say that we understand each other because we had to come out under fire or because we struggled with it,’ Mr. Sprinkle said.”  This campaign goes even beyond the scope of the gay community. Many youths find the message inspiring. 

            In her article “Queer Aztlan: The Re-formation of Chicano Tribe,” Cherrie Moraga discusses the way intersectionality ruled her existence.  Moraga writes, “Although I could not express how at the time, I knew I had a place in that Movement that was spilling out of barrio high schools and onto police-barricaded streets just ten minutes from my tree-lined working class neighborhood in San Gabriel. What I didn’t know then was that it would take me another ten years to fully traverse that ten-minute drive and to bring all the parts of me – Chicana, lesbian, half-breed, and poeta- to the revolution, wherever it was” (Pg. 146).  What Moraga could not have then, teenagers everywhere have access to the It Gets Better campaign.  There is a community for everyone. 

            The project can also be attributed to saving lives.  On the It Get Better YouTube page it provides them information for the “Trevor Project.”  The Trevor Project is an organization that has a toll-free telephone line and online chats for gay youth who feel lonely, depressed, or suicidal. 

            This project is really quite beautiful.  It has become mainstream so many youth watch the videos and understand the message, but most importantly is provides solidarity to a very diverse community. 

Works Cited

1.) Moraga, Cherrie. "Queer Aztlan: The Reformation of the Chicano Tribe." The Last Generation (1993). Print.

2.) Smith, Barbara. "Homophobia: Why Bring It Up?" The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (1993). Print.

3.) STELTER, BRIAN. "Campaign Offers Help to Gay Youths." The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Oct. 2010. Web. 22 Feb. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/us/19video.html>.

4.) "What Is the It Gets Better Project?" It Gets Better Project. Web. 22 Feb. 2012. <http://www.itgetsbetter.org/pages/about-it-gets-better-project/>.