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| Ashley Alberg is organizing the It Gets Better drop-in session. |
On Tuesday, students, faculty and staff have the opportunity to visit the Dalhousie Women’s Centre and share a simple message with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer youth around the world: It gets better.
“It Gets Better” is a grassroots campaign of solidarity where LGBT adults and allies share video messages of hope. It was started by columnist Dan Savage this September in the wake of several highly-publicized suicides by queer youth.
The goal is to show young people struggling with bullying, abuse or exclusion because of their sexual orientation that there is a world of possibility awaiting them beyond the walls of high school. There have been thousands of videos submitted, from citizens to celebrities and politicians—even President Barack Obama has produced a video.
Dalhousie’s Gender and Women’s Studies Student Society (GWSS) wanted to help the university community contribute to the campaign. So they’re organizing a drop-in session on Tuesday, providing the space and equipment for individuals to film their own testimonials.
“The whole idea stemmed from my Gender and Women's Studies class with Shirley Tillotson,” explains Alex Hallink, a second-year Dal student and one of the organizers. “We were given an optional ‘activism assignment,’ and I wanted to do something. I had been thinking of doing my own ‘It Gets Better’ video a while ago, and then I thought, ‘Why not get all my friends involved and make this something big?’”
The drop-in session will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Women’s Centre (6286 South Street). Visitors will be able to film their own “It Gets Better” video in private using provided video equipment. The GWSS society will then, with permission, upload the videos to the “It Gets Better” YouTube channel and put together some of the comments into a compilation video.
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| "Why not get my friends involved and make it big," says Alex Hallink. |
“I want people to feel like they’re personally involved,” says Ashley Alberg, a third-year theatre and gender studies major who is organizing the effort with Ms. Hallink. “Often with these big campaigns, everyone has so much going on that it’s hard to get to feel involved. Hopefully by making the setup and equipment easy we can help people contribute.”
One of the main reasons the “It Gets Better” has resonated with so many people is that it combines a hopeful, positive message while also shedding light on the serious issue of suicide amongst queer youth. The campaign’s website references several powerful statistics, including that LGBT kids are four times as likely to commit suicide than their straight peers.
“Growing up, I was bullied and picked on for not really fitting in and didn't have many positive queer role models to look to for support,” says Ms. Hallink. “So the fact that these videos are getting out there and a kid in a small town wherever, can know that people care and support them.”
“Part of it is just the idea of hope, which sounds corny, I know,” laughs Ms. Alberg. “I’ve been reading articles about the campaign, weighing the pros and cons, and there’s no doubt that it’s not going to help everyone, and some of the participants are operating out of self-interest. But it’s garnered so much attention and so many contributions that it’s really bringing attention to an important issue.”
LINK: It Gets Better Project