"It Gets Better"

It has been a long couple of weeks for LGBT youth as they start another school year. Local and national media came out with an onslaught of stories about the tragic suicides of several bullied teens, including Tyler Clementi, Seth Walsh, Asher Brown, Billy Lucas, and Harrison Chase Brown. While LC/NA joins in mourning the loss of these promising young people, we also join with our friends in offering hope for LGBT young people.

Lura Groen, pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Texas, is helping to promote the "It Gets Better" project on the news.

"Teens know celebrities who are out. There are so many teens isolated who don't know everyday people who are out. That's part of the power of this project to say you don't have to be Ellen to have a fabulous life as an openly LGBT person. I don't think that's something kids have had exposure to before on the Internet before this project," said Rev. Groen.

Started by columnist Dan Savage, the project brings together hundreds of videos by people of all ages, sexual orientations and gender identities that give support and hope for a more welcoming future to youth who suffer anti-LGBT harassment by their peers. Thank you, Lura, for giving visibility to this project and for calling on us to support our youth!

Is your congregation working to support youth of all sexual orientations and gender identities? In what efforts to support LGBT youth are you involved?