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The '''It Gets Better''' project is a [[liberal]] project founded in September 2010 in the wake of a number of suicides by gay teenagers who had been bullied for their perceived sexual orientation. The idea behind the project is to tell gay teens to hold on to their homosexuality, promising them that adult homosexual life will provide them "levels of happiness, potential, and positivity". It argues that a problem the gay community faces is lack of acceptance and toleration from "straight" people. If they can "just get through their teen years", they'll be able to enjoy the protection of adult power and camaraderie which will overcome the "daily tormenting and bullying" they face now.<ref>http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/showing-gay-teens-a-happy-future/ Showing Gay Teenagers a Happy Future</ref>

The '''It Gets Better''' project argues that a problem the gay community faces is lack of acceptance and toleration from "straight" people. Project founder [[Dan Savage]] argues that if homosexual youuths can "just get through their teen years", they'll be able to enjoy the protection of adult power and camaraderie which will overcome the "daily tormenting and bullying" they face now.<ref>http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/showing-gay-teens-a-happy-future/ Showing Gay Teenagers a Happy Future</ref>

 

==History==

==History==

The project was founded by [[Dan Savage]] on September 21, 2010 after the suicide of a gay teenager named Billy Lucas. Savage expressed that "I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes. 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''."(Author's emphasis)<ref>http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=4940874 Give 'Em Hope</ref> Savage, in conjunction with several organizations founded the project as a [[501(c)(3)]] organization and set up a [[YouTube]] [http://www.youtube.com/itgetsbetterproject channel] to which videos could be uploaded.

The project was founded by on September 21, 2010 in response to the suicide of a gay teenager named Billy Lucas. Savage expressed that "I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes. 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''."(Author's emphasis)<ref>http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=4940874 Give 'Em Hope</ref> Savage, in conjunction with several organizations founded the project as a [[501(c)(3)]] organization and set up a [[YouTube]] [http://www.youtube.com/itgetsbetterproject channel] to which videos could be uploaded.

While it started off with just a video from Savage and his then husband, within two weeks more than 200 videos were submitted to the project and soon after the project reached YouTube's video limit of 640 submissions. Due to the increasing submissions an [http://www.itgetsbetter.org/ It Gets Better Project website] was launched where more videos could be hosted. The site continues to accept submissions.<ref>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/07/MNVJ1FP6E1.DTL  

While it started off with just a video from Savage and his then husband, within two weeks more than 200 videos were submitted to the project and soon after the project reached YouTube's video limit of 640 submissions. Due to the increasing submissions an [http://www.itgetsbetter.org/ It Gets Better Project website] was launched where more videos could be hosted. The site continues to accept submissions.<ref>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/07/MNVJ1FP6E1.DTL