Tonight: Dan Savage Hosts “It Gets Better” Special On MTV And Logo

Tonight at 11:00 PM Et, Dan Savage will host the premiere of an hour-long documentary-style special based on his famous “It Gets Better” project.

The Advocate has a long interview with Savage, and offers this as an intro:

Viewers on MTV and Logo tonight at 11 p.m. ET will meet Greg, Vanessa and Aydian — a closeted student body president, a lesbian fighting for her family’s acceptance, plus a trans man trying to get married.

And while Savage has often called himself an imperfect messenger for the movement, it was during the taping of the special and his upcoming MTV sex advice show, called Savage U, that some tried again to question whether the outspoken, nationally syndicated sex columnist really represents them. It was during a taping of Savage U in Vancouver that he was glitter-bombed by trans activists for what they say is a history of transphobia.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview, by Lucas Grindley, which is worthwhile:

I watched the MTV special, which is really powerful. The stories are all about coming out. But it made me wonder. Your message from adults to young people used to be that “it gets better,” and now I wonder if the message is, “it gets better, especially if you come out.”

No. We don’t go into in the special very explicitly, but what I’ve said for years is the answer to your troubles as a gay kid isn’t just to come out. That’s going to give you new troubles, different troubles.

With 40% of homeless kids being queer kids who are thrown out after they came out, it is irresponsible of gay adults to run around saying “come out, come out” to gay youth.
What you see in the show are really kids – young adults – at three different places in the coming-out process. And the show clearly demonstrates that the coming-out process isn’t over in one day. It’s not one event. It involves struggle and follow-up conversations and more work. You don’t just say “I’m a lesbian,” and it’s all over. But that’s what’s so great about Vanessa’s story, her reality. You really see something in the special that we have talked about as people who are gay but that we never actually see. On television, this is somebody who is breaking through a kind of tentative, qualified, conditional acceptance from their family to something deeper and more loving. And that is almost invariably the second step when we come out to our families. There are more conversations. There are more tears.

Check  local listings here – I expect it will be rebroadcast, frequently.

One additional note: we’re wondering why 11:00 PM, Logo/MTV?