Standing Up To Bullying, part IV: It Gets Better

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope. “

- Helen Keller

Earlier this month, a 15-year old student named Billy Lucas from Greensburg, Indiana killed himself. His friends put up a memorial page for him on Facebook, saying that he was bullied mercilessly at school, both out of racism and homophobia. Then trolls from all over the internet converged on his memorial and defaced it with homophobic comments.

Dan Savage of the column Savage Love heard about the story and wrote:

“I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes. I wish I could have told Billy that it gets better. I wish I could have told him that, however bad things were, however isolated and alone he was, it gets better.”

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… then started a YouTube channel to pass on that very message. He and his husband posted a video about what it was like growing up in Christian schools, and how they’re living proof that it can get better. He also invited other lesbian, gay, bi, trans adults to post YouTube videos to tell their stories for GLBT youth, some of whom can’t even imagine how they will grow up to be openly gay adults. If you’d like to contribute, check the channel for instructions!

(Update: It just keeps getting better and better! Check out the video contributions from the BC Teachers’ Federation and from a rally in San Fran on Sunday!… and Adam Lambert, city councilman Joel Burns (story), Chris Colfer, Rick Mercer, Tim Gunn, The Vancouver Mabel League, and hundreds more. Just keep scrolling… I bet you’ll find someone who speaks to you!)

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There’s a quirk to this story: Billy’s memorial doesn’t say that he’s gay… instead it says that that was one of the things that kids were teasing him about. Near as I can tell he wasn’t out and probably the only person who might even know for sure is him. It’s odd, but I’m not so sure it’s so important whether he was gay or straight because everything that was said and done to him was still all about homophobia and I bet they would’ve hurt him like hell either way.

Don’t get me wrong, Dan Savage’s It Gets Better project is still deadly awesome. This quirk doesn’t take anything away from that. But maybe this just goes to show why homophobia hurts us all, gay or straight…. and why that makes fighting it everyone’s business.