After reading the passage below, answer the questions that follow. Be sure to "submit" your response for each question. You will initially receive full credit for each question, but your grade may change once your instructor reviews your responses. Be sure to check the grade book for your final grade.
The It Gets Better Project
Columnist Dan Savage was stewing. He had just heard about the suicide of an Indiana teenager, Billy Lucas, who had hanged himself in his grandmother’s barn at the age of fifteen. Lucas, who may or may not have been gay, was perceived as gay by his classmates and bullied harshly because of it. Savage felt heartbroken and angry. So many gay teenagers experience bullying and harassment, and like other gay men and women, Savage had endured bullying during his teenage years. But in spite of it, he was now a happy adult with a fulfilling life that included a great career and a loving family. He was frustrated that Billy Lucas would miss out on those things. I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes, Savage wrote in his column. 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 (Savage, 2010).
It was too late to say those things to Billy Lucas. But Savage knew there were thousands more young people like Billy Lucas, teenagers who were gay or lesbian or simply unsure about their sexuality and who were being targeted and tormented. He knew that those teens are four times more likely to attempt suicide than others — and he believed that it was not too late to talk to them. So Savage and his partner sat down in front of their webcam and made a video. They talked about their own experiences at the mercy of bullies and about being isolated from their own parents when they first came out. But they also talked about what comes later: gaining acceptance, finding places where they were not alone, and building families and careers. They posted the video to YouTube and encouraged others to do the same. The It Gets Better Project was born.
Today, more than sixty thousand videos have been posted — from straight and gay people, celebrities, and ordinary people from all over the world — and the site has over a half million followers (It Gets Better, 2019). The project has also taken off internationally, bringing messages of hope and highlights of events and positive media coverage to LGBTQ youth on six continents.
Note: The project does not offer any solutions for dealing with bullies or advise students to engage in conflict with those who abuse them. It simply offers them a peer experience, to show them that they are not alone, and tries to show them that life will go on after the bullying ends.