It Gets Better
I was catching up on my feeds on Google Reader just now as I do every Sunday. One of the feeds is from the GLAAD blog, all the news and media announcements from GLAAD (the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). One of the major pieces of news on there this week is that in September, four young lads, aged between 13 and 18, killed themselves because of homophobic bullying. Only 3 of the 4 were out as gay, and one of those only to his parents, the fourth was perceived to be gay by the others at his school. Apparently some American LGBT celebrities have spoken out about this urging people to take action. The most notable of these has been someone called Dan Savage that I've never heard of. From what I can gather, he's started a campaign called It Gets Better with the sole aim of telling LGBT youth that although it may be hard now, things will get better.
I'm sorry, but no. How patronising. All that says to young people is that their issues now are not so bad and will go away when they get older. It also says that issues of young people are not real problems and that young people don't count. They will not count until they reach some magic age of majority at which point all their problems will magicially fade away. Which apart from being complete bollocks is also completely useless. They don't need to be told to hang on and wait, they need help NOW. It's just a cop out. It's a way of doing something without actually doing anything at all. But at least you look like you care.
I know in the UK, there are numerous LGBT youth organisations who are crying out for money and resources. I presume there's a similiar situation in the US. If people like Dan Savage and Ellen really want to make a difference to these young people, rather than making stupid videos, they should donate time, energy and money into those youth organisations where it will make an actual difference.
And just to put things into context, over the same period of time that those four gay lads took their own lives, four Trans people had theirs taken from them.
I'm sorry, but no. How patronising. All that says to young people is that their issues now are not so bad and will go away when they get older. It also says that issues of young people are not real problems and that young people don't count. They will not count until they reach some magic age of majority at which point all their problems will magicially fade away. Which apart from being complete bollocks is also completely useless. They don't need to be told to hang on and wait, they need help NOW. It's just a cop out. It's a way of doing something without actually doing anything at all. But at least you look like you care.
I know in the UK, there are numerous LGBT youth organisations who are crying out for money and resources. I presume there's a similiar situation in the US. If people like Dan Savage and Ellen really want to make a difference to these young people, rather than making stupid videos, they should donate time, energy and money into those youth organisations where it will make an actual difference.
And just to put things into context, over the same period of time that those four gay lads took their own lives, four Trans people had theirs taken from them.