I am one that was born to read bumper stickers. Nothing is more frustrating than to see an interesting bumper sticker that I can’t read.
The other day, I saw one on the car in front of me that simply said “itgetsbetter.org.” I was hoping I’d be able to remember that address to look it up when I got home.
It has been almost a year since Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi committed suicide by jumping from the George Washington Bridge after learning his roommate had secretly set up a web cam to broadcast his sexual encounter with another man. I remember being horrified when I read this story, but I also remembered how sensitive I was at 18. When we get older, most of us realize that things like that aren’t worth dying for, but Clementi will never get that opportunity.
As it turns out, ItGetsBetter.com was set up to try to prevent lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) bullying. Clementi isn’t the only example of someone that took his or her life because of bullying. In addition to him, the site listed others who committed suicide due to bullying – Justin Aaberg,15 (hanged himself on 7/9/10), Billy Lucas, 15 (hanged himself on 9/9/10), Cody Barker, 17 (took his life on 9/13/10), Seth Walsh, 13, (hanged himself on 9/19/10), Asher Brown, 13 (shot himself on 9/23/10), and Raymond Chase, 19 (hanged himself on 9/29/10).
Some of the teens were openly gay, some weren’t. They left behind saddened siblings, friends, and parents. They were all abused by classmates for being or acting gay or somehow different from the norm.
ItGetsBetter hopes to simply show LGBT kids that if you are bullied in your teens, life gets better later on, so stick around long enough to find out. Created by columnist/author Dan Savage and his partner Terry, ItGetsBetter is a resource for troubled LGBT teens, but also asks visitors to pledge to respect everyone, speak up against hate and intolerance, and spread this word among their family and friends.
ItGetsBetter has been supported by politicians (President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton), celebrities (Colin Farrell, Anne Hathaway, Matthew Morrison, Ellen DeGeneres), musicians/singers (Ke$ha, Joe Jonas, Adam Lambert, and Joel Madden), and companies (The Gap, Google, Facebook, and Pixar).
No one wants to be bullied. No one. So take a look at ItGetsBetter and take the pledge to be more tolerant of everyone.