It Gets Better Because You MAKE It Better

You'll need tissues. At least, we did. Today's advice column on The Rumpus, an online culture magazine, answers a young gay man's plea for help in getting out of his homophobic household. If you can't spare the time to read the whole column (but, you really, really should), then at least read this. Sugar, the columnist, directs her seeker to the It Gets Better Project, which of course we all know about by now. But Sugar has something new to offer, and its a perspective that we think makes the project's message all the more meaningful.

She writes, "And true as that is and moved as I've been by many of the videos made by gay, lesbian, bi and trans people telling their stories, I think there's an important piece missing in that message. All those people in the wonderful videos? It didn't just get better for them. They made it better. Each and every one of those people rose at a moment in their lives--one that is very much like this moment in your life, Suffocated--and at that moment they chose to tell the truth about themselves instead of staying "safe" inside the lie. They realized that, in fact, the lie wasn't safe. That it threatened their existence more profoundly then the truth did."

-- PHILLIP B. CROOK

Previously > Out's 2010 Holiday Gift Guide