In late September 2010, following a string of suicides by young men and women bullied for being gay, an online video project called “It Gets Better” took to the Internet, providing voices of encouragement, love and hope to persecuted gay adolescents everywhere. Among their voices was Jamey Rodemeyer, 14, who posted his own contribution in May.
“Just love yourself and you’re set,” he said in his video, “… and I promise you it’ll get age.”
Schools need to treat bullying with zero tolerance and hold staff and faculty accountable for ensuring the policy, said Torres. “If someone knows that adults in charge will not tolerate this type of behavior, they feel safer,” he said. DePaul student Nathaniel Bass, a sophomore, feels that more people need to step up and defend their harassed peers.Kelly Carpenter, a freshman at DePaul, is grateful that she is in a place that is more accepting of the LGBT community, but she is aware that it is not like that everywhere.
“It’s so sad that it came to this,” said Carpenter, who was also active in LGBTQ groups in high school. “In high school it’s very cliquey. It’s not cool [to be different] … here, people can be completely different and still get along with each challenges.”
“Simply telling someone ‘it gets better’… is a helpful but too simplistic response,” said Torres. “Helpful, but not all that we can