Dan Savage Responds To President Obama’s “It Gets Better” Message

Dan Savage, creator of the “It Gets Better Project,” talked with CNN this morning, after President Barack Obama released his own “It Gets Better” message late yesterday. Savage also mentions the poll we wrote about here last night that finds that the vast majority of Americans believe that religious institutions in America are to blame for the LGBT anti-gay bullying suicides.

Savage says,

“Here you have the President of the United States saying that you didn’t choose it — to be gay — and you will get through this…that said, the President of the United States has the power to do more than assure LGBT kids that it will get better; the President of the United States has the power to make it better for LGBT adults and children.”

He goes on to say the President’s words are welcome, but gently suggests we need more action.

(By the way, a call-out to CNN: Your coverage, especially in this piece, displays how woefully out-of-touch and how much of this story you have chosen to ignore. There were a lot more suicides than you have bothered to mention or acknowledge. That goes for most of the main-stream media as well.)

Andy Towle, one of the most widely-read and one of the most-respected LGBT bloggers, added this last night:

“President Obama, as long as the actions of your administration continue to tell LGBT people that they are less than equal citizens, that they do not deserve to marry the person that they love, that they do not deserve to serve openly in the U.S. military, that they can still be fired from jobs because of who they are, how can you promise these kids that “it gets better?”

“Thank you for recording this message. Please follow up your words with actions. Set the example you say is so important.”