Friday, October 01, 2010

Monday Movie Musings - It Gets Better

It's been an ugly couple of weeks. It seems like every other day there's another news report about another teen suicide caused by bullying. Whether it's the 13 year old who hanged himself after classmates tormented him about being gay, or the college kid who jumped off a bridge because his roommate secretly taped him with another man and streamed it on the internet, all these cases are tied together with a painful commonality - bullying based on perceived sexual orientation.

The fact is, 9 out of 10 GLBT teens are victims of bullying at some point in their school career, and they're also four times more likely to commit suicide than straight teens. So while bullying in any shape or form is wrong and needs to be stopped, it's even more crucial to take a stand against sexual-orientation-targeted bullying. That's why today's Monday Movie Musings is focused on the videos featured on the new YouTube channel It Gets Better. By turns funny, earnest, emotional, fierce, and determined, the short pieces featured on this channel have a message of hope for all kids out there dealing with these issues. Here's one of my favorites.





And stop by tomorrow when Book BIN Tuesday will be looking at YA or YA-friendly books with LGBT themes.

1 comment:

Maia Strong said...

Wonderful video! I need to watch more of these. I've had my head in the theatre for the past fortnight, and it isn't done there yet. But, yeah. I need to watch more of these.