It Gets Better
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• Work with students to create a system of accountability to remind each other when those norms are broken and how to make amends.
• Do not let phrases like “that’s so gay,” etc., go without immediately acknowledging it and addressing how it affects LGBT students.Glsen.org has specifics on how to respond to anti-LGBT language and behavior.
• Set aside class time every week, as little as twenty minutes, to have students participate in a group discussion or activity where trust, empathy, and acceptance are fostered. You can use activities and lessons from our diversity curriculum, Embracing Differences, which builds communication skills and understanding of how our beliefs and actions about difference can positively or negatively affect how we relate to one another.
• Include gay and lesbian leaders and writers and historical figures as examples in your teaching to create greater awareness and acceptance and establish an environment of inclusiveness.
• Be a caring and supportive adult for young people. One of the most important factors for student success now and later is the number of caring adults in their life.
• Connect with resources from community-based organizations in your neighborhood for information, training, support, and materials.
In your school:• Assess your school’s anti-discrimination policies to ensure that they include protection against harassment and discrimination based on sexual and gender orientation.
• Advocate with your principal or administrator for professional development training on school LGBT issues, including training to recognize and effectively address anti-LGBT bullying.
• Share information and encourage others staff to model LGBT support in classrooms and throughout the school to ensure student safety, emotional well-being, and academic success.
• Ensure that school events and celebrations are inclusive of LGBT students. Support students’ measures to address LGBT issues such as the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance.
• Ensure that the school library and publications include resources that cover LGBT people and issues.
The Leadership Program, a youth development organization with more than twenty years of experience working with teachers, youth, and their families in the New York City public schools in violence prevention, character education, and social-emotional learning, believes that creating time in the classroom to talk about difference and understanding is an important part of empowering teachers and students to proactively create a positive school environment that embraces difference and cultivates respect. Giving students the opportunity in a safe and supportive structure to explore their ideas of difference, how these ideas influence their actions, and how their actions affect others’ feelings enables them to relate to one another with increased empathy and understanding. These sample lessons can be used in high school classes where teachers are looking for ways to foster discussion and exploration to create a classroom learning environment that supports students’ self-identity, self-esteem, and mutual respect.
For more information go to www.theleadershipprogram.com.
The Trevor Project
Each one of us deserves a future where we can dream big and achieve big, no matter who we love or how we express our gender. The Trevor Project is here for young lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning people to help whenever you or a friend might need to talk to someone. Through our lifesaving programs and information, we work every day to help make the future better for all LGBTQ youth.
In 1998, the Academy Award®-winning film Trevor appeared on HBO; in the story, thirteen-year-old Trevor attempts suicide after his crush on another boy is revealed and his “friends” reject him. The filmmakers wanted to make sure that if anyone watching the film felt like Trevor, they could call an LGBTQ-friendly resource and get help. Since at the time there wasn’t a suicide or crisis lifeline for LGBTQ youth, James Lecesne, Peggy Rajski, and Randy Stone founded the Trevor Project.
Now the Trevor Project operates the twenty-four-hour Trevor Lifeline as well as the TrevorChat online messaging service, both connecting young LGBTQ people to open and accepting counselors, free of charge. Plus there is trevorspace.org, where thousands of young LGBTQ people from all over the world can connect in a safe and accepting social space. Trevor is also on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube connecting young people with positive messages every day.
If you or someone you care about feels depressed or is considering taking their own life, please call the Trevor Lifeline at: 866-4-U-TREVOR (866-488-7386). The call is free and confidential. Visit thetrevorproject.org to learn more.
GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network)
Every student deserves a safe space at school and an equal opportunity to get an education. GLSEN’s work clears a path to well-being, opportunity, and achievement for any student facing anti-LGBT bias and behavior in schools.
As a national education organization that addresses LGBT issues in K-12 schools, GLSEN is primarily focused on an urgent daily reality: More than four out of five LGBT students have experienced physical, verbal, or sexual harassment at school. One in five has been assaulted on school grounds. And the vast majority never report what happens to them, because they do not believe that school officials will do anything to help. Students who face this kind of victimization do less well in school, are less likely to plan to graduate, and can suffer greatly in terms of their individual well-being and their prospects for success in life.
All of our work is designed to ensure student safety and champion students’ success. Our programs include: • Leadership development training and support to individual student leaders and more than four thousand Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs)
• National sponsorship of the Day of Silence, a student-led day of action that has reached hundreds of thousands of students
• Federal- and state-level legislative and policy advocacy for effective measures to reduce bullying and bias in schools
• Professional development trainings on LGBT issues for thousands of teachers, administrators, and other school staff
• The Safe Space Campaign to place critical information in all one hundred thousand middle and high schools nationwide
These are just a few of the ways that GLSEN works to improve school climate on LGBT issues nationwide, and contribute to the creation of great schools that serve all of their students. To learn more about GLSEN and our work, visit www.glsen.org.
GLSEN is grateful to Dan Savage and the It Gets Better Project for selecting GLSEN as an official beneficiary.
ACLU LGBT Project
America’s foremost advocate of individual rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, is a nonpartisan organization founded in 1920. With national headquarters in New York and Washington and fifty-three affiliates throughout the country, the ACLU has played a major role in nearly every critical civil liberties battle of the last century.
The ACLU has advocated on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people for more than seventy years and in 1986 founded its LGBT Project, a division of the national ACLU Foundation. Today, the ACLU does more court cases, legislative lobbying, and grassroots policy advocacy on LGBT matters than any other national civil rights organization. The ACLU also works in the media to change public attitudes and provide advocacy tools to help people take action in their own communities.
The LGBT Project’s Youth & Schools program works to make public schools safe and bias-free for LGBTQ students and teachers and helps students stand up to discrimination, harassment, and censorship.
The project’s website provides several resources for young people, including information on their legal rights in school and printable letters that students and parents can give to their schools about LGBTQ students’ free speech rights and their right to attend school without fear of harassment, to bring same-sex dates to the prom, to have Internet access that doesn’t illegally censor pro-LGBT content, to form Gay-Straight Alliance clubs, and other such issues. We promise that every young person who
writes or calls the ACLU LGBT Project will get a response.
For more information on the project’s work on behalf of LGBTQ youth, visit http://www.aclu.org/safeschools.
To donate to the ACLU’s LGBT work, visit http://www.aclu.org/lgbtdonate.
WRITE TO US
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation LGBT Project, 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004-2400
PHOTO AND COMIC CREDITS
FEATURED COMIC ARTISTS
Alison Bechdel wrote the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For from 1983 to 2008. Her graphic memoir about her closeted-gay dad, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, was nominated for a 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award. She lives in Vermont.
Seattle cartoonist Ellen Forney created several Eisner-nominated comic books, including I Love Led Zeppelin and Monkey Food, and collaborated with Sherman Alexie on National Book Award-winning novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. She teaches comics studio and graphic novels lit at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, and is currently working on her first graphic novel for Gotham/Penguin Books.
PHOTO CREDITS
Taylor Bailey, photo by Annette Haynes
Kate Bornstein, photo by Maxwell Ander
Agustín Cepeda, photo by Angela Hsieh
Andy Cohen, photo courtesy of Bravo Media
Ivan Coyote, photo by Laura Sawchuk
Angelo D’Agostino, photo by Eric Scot
Philip Deal, photo by Wendy Werner Maness Photography
Ellen DeGeneres, photo by Andrew Eccles/Warner Bros.
Barbara Gaines, photo by JP Filo
Brian Gallivan, photo by David Zaugh
Terry Galloway, photo by Alan Pogue
Kevin Hague, photo by Alan Liefting
Murray Hill, photo by Allison Michael Orenstein
Perez Hilton, photo by Austin Young
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, photo by Jicky Leidicke
Wayne Knaub, photo by Rex Rogosch
Gregory Maguire, photo by Andy Newman, © 2008,
used with permission
Kyle Dean Massey, photo by Susan Shacter
Patrick Murphy, photo by Allyson Murphy
Meshell Ndegeocello, photo by Mark Seliger
Bishop Gene Robinson, photo by BProud Photography, Philadelphia
Urvashi Vaid, photo by Tom Genarra
Kevin Yee, photo by Louisa Podlich
Mark Ramirez, photo courtesy of Jonathan McMillan
randy roberts potts, photo by Ange Fitzgerald
Bishop Mark Hanson, photo by the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America
PERMISSIONS
A Message from President Barack Obama used by permission of The White House, copyright © 2011 by Barack Obama.
Stay with Us used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Jules Skloot.
You Will Find Your People used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Laurel Slongwhite.
The Life Almost Lost used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Bruce Ortiz.
In the Early Morning Rain used by permission of the author, copyright © 2003/2011 by Jennifer Finney Boylan.
Something Has Changed within Me used by permission of Gregory Maguire, copyright © 2010 by Gregory Maguire.
Action Makes It Better used by permission of Urvashi Vaid, copyright © 2011 by Urvashi Vaid.
You Are a Rubber Band, My Friend used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Brinae Lois Gaudet.
God Believes in You used by permission of Bishop Gene Robinson, Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, copyright © 2011 by Bishop Gene Robinson, Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire.
The Person Worth Fighting For Is You used by permission of Alex R. Orue, copyright © 2011 by Alex R. Orue.
A Message from Ellen DeGeneres used by permission of Ellen DeGeneres, copyright © Ellen DeGeneres 2011.
Life Unfolds Exactly As It Should (But Not As You Planned) used by permission of the authors, copyright © 2011 by Sean Blane and David Rosen.
It Gets Better for a British Soldier used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by James Wharton.
Getting Stronger and Staying Alive used by permission of Gabrielle Rivera, copyright © 2011 by Gabrielle Rivera.
Coming Out of the Shtetl: Gay Orthodox Jews used by permission of the authors, copyright © 2011 by Marc Tannen.
Going Back In © 2011 by Mare Vaporum Corp. Used with permission of Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.
And the Emmy Goes To . . . used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Barbara Gaines. Originally created as part of the Strength Through Community Project of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York.
A Message from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton used by permission of the U.S. Department of State.
This I Know for Sure used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by A.Y. Daring.
It Gets Better Broadway used by permission of the authors, copyright © 2011 by the contributors to It Gets Better Broadway.
Rockin’ the Flannel Shirt used by permission of Krissy Mahan, copyright © 2011 by Krissy Mahan.
How It Got Better for an Ordained Christian Minister used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Stephen V. Sprinkle.
Out of Darkness used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Philip Deal.
I Was a Teenage Lesbian used by permission of Alison Bechdel, copyright © 1994/2011 by Alison Bechdel.
Something Special used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Sia Furler.
The Dinner Party used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Adam Roberts.
What I Wish I Knew used by permission of Ivan Coyote, copyright © 2011 by Ivan Coyote.
Freedom from Fear used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Michael Feinstein.
A Message from Prime Minister David Cameron used by permission of the Prime Minister’s Office, London.
You Will Meet People Who Celebrate You used by permission of the authors, copyright © 2011 by Jenn and Erika Wagner-Martin.
An Identity Unfolded used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Mark Ramirez.
A Message from Suze Orman used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Suze Orman.
Brothers: It Gets Better used by permission of the authors, copyright © 2011 by Lenox Magee, Rannon Harris, David Dodd, and Kean Ray.
Drop Dead, Warlock used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by David Sedaris.
Gwendolyn Gone used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Meshell Ndegeocello.
Growing Up Gay . . . and KINKY used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Dart.
The Biggest Gift used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Stewart Taylor.
A Message from Senator Al Franken used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Al Franken.
Transsexual Prairie Girl used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Tamsyn Waterhouse.
Art from Rage used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Jason Sellards.
It Gets Better / (Btkoun Ahsan) used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Bashar Makhay / .
Too Good to Be True used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Cameron Tuttle.
Journey to a Better Life used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Juan Carlos Galan, MS.
The Gay Guy in the Band used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Kevin Yee.
Will I Grow Up to Be Paul Lynde? used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Andy Cohen.
Finding Who I Am used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Hunter Adeline Brady.
Community used by permission of Chaz Bono, copyright © 2011 by Chaz Bono.
A Message from Nancy Pelosi used by permission of Nancy Pelosi, copyright © 2011 by Nancy Pelosi.
Gunn’s Golden Rules used by permission of the author, copyrigh
t © 2011 by Tim Gunn.
Perfect, Just the Way You Are used by permission from Darren Hayes copyright © 2011 by Darren Hayes.
Where Happiness Is used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Natalie S. Mandelin.
Not-Normal used by permission of Michael K. Wells, copyright © 2011 by Michael K. Wells.
Born This Way used by permission of Perez Hilton, copyright © 2011 by Perez Hilton.
Darn It used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Kate Clinton.
Look at the Moon used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Agustín Cepeda.
Critical Shifts used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Jesse Barnes.
For Aideybear used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Ava Dodge.
A Message from John Berry used by permission of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, copyright © 2011 by John Berry.
The Show Must Go On used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Kyle Dean Massey.
Survival Tools used by permission of Ellen Forney, copyright © 2011 by Ellen Forney.
Dear Uncle Ronnie used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by randy roberts potts.
My Office Wall used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Trevor Corneil.
Keep on Livin’ original words by JD Samson, used by permission of JD Samson, copyright © 2001 by JD Samson.
It Gets Better Because You’re a Little Different used by permission of Dave Holmes, copyright © 2011 by Dave Holmes.
Unapologetically, Me . . . used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Demetrius Gittens.
A Collective Voice used by permission of the authors, copyright © 2011 by Gabe Milligan-Green, Addy Cahill, and Russell Peck.
I Didn’t Always Wear a Tuxedo used by permission of the author, copyright © 2011 by Murray Hill.