columnist Dan Savage certainly hopes so. Savage's brainchild, the "It Gets Better" campaign, has become the most virally active anti-suicide

approach in recent weeks. Savage and his husband took to YouTube to showcase the trials and tribulations of their personal coming out journeys and to directly tell young gay people that it gets better. Thousands of people have followed Savage's lead and created their own "It Gets Better" video messages, including my humble contribution. The best part about the campaign is that it has an actual chance of working. By hosting the campaign on YouTube and sharing the best videos on Facebook, "It Gets Better" is penetrating sites that are already daily destinations for the target demographic.

The campaign also plays an important role in engaging adults in the fight to create awareness. The option of creating a personal video empowers people, who otherwise would feel pretty helpless, to feel like they have the power to make a difference. It also can be very cathartic as Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns found out when he gave his "It Gets Better" speech during a council meeting. Burns emotional personal story has been viewed on YouTube 1.5 million times, it is featured on TED.com and he has been interviewed by a slew of national media programs. More importantly, Burns has reported that he has already heard from young people who were impacted by the video.

A criticism of the "It Gets Better" campaign is that telling young people to just wait it out doesn't do anything to stop the torment they are enduring today. This is why a group of young people have taken Savage's campaign to the next level by creating the "Make It Better" project, which provides the tools to young people to take back their schools from bullying and not have to wait for it to get better.

Social media is the natural home for these and other campaigns, because cyber bullying is a substantial part of the problem. Facebook is working with gay advocacy organizations to reduce anti-gay cyberbullying, but it is not easily navigated terrain for social networks. A Facebook representative said, "We have policies that prohibit hateful content and we have built a robust reporting infrastructure and an expansive team to review reports and remove content quickly." But he added that it is important to strike a balance between removing egregious posts and still maintaining users right to free speech.

The campaigns are also playing out in entertainment media. Glee has promised to dedicate an entire storyline to the troubles of anti-gay bullying, several celebrities have cut PSAs for The Trevor Project, which is the main organization dedicated to eradicating gay suicide, and even more celebrities have produced their own "It Gets Better" videos. Anderson Cooper and Ellen Degeneres have used their respective platforms to be extremely vocal on the harms of anti-gay bullying and each has already achieved results. Cooper's casual mention of a movie trailer's use of "That's so gay" prompted Universal to remove the phrase from the trailer for Vince Vaughn's "The Dilemma," while Ellen's heartfelt message to gay teens was another viral wildfire.

Recent events have caused other celebrities to act out of character. Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton put on his most responsible looking outfit as he proclaimed that he will substantially change the way he runs the website that made him a millionaire. Perez realized the hypocrisy of condemning bullying while making his living by bullying celebrities.

Another surprising moment could also be the most effective in this entire meme. Last week, FOX News rabble-rouser Glenn Beck reported on the awful anti-gay attacks in the Bronx, where three men were systemically beaten and sodomized with foreign objects. After explaining the despicable details of the crime, Beck looked deep into the camera and asked, "who are we and who are we becoming?" He said the attacks represented "a whole new level of evil" and he said, "This is not only anti-gay, it is anti-human. It is bigotry for sport."

Glenn Beck was not speaking to the youth of America, but he was perhaps speaking to the parents of America. The Trevor Project reports that over 2/3 of the calls to their suicide line are from the Midwest and South, also known as Glenn Beck country.

This multi-platform approach has successfully created a national dialogue and hopefully some hearts and minds have been changed, but the challenge will be maintaining a lasting action plan to stop the bullying after the meme floats away.

by Adam Amel Rogers, Originally posted on change.org
Exodus International, the preeminent organization involved in the dangerous practices of so-called “ex-gay reparative therapy,” took a very important step this week in response to the tragic barrage of gay suicides across the nation. Exodus announced that they are parting ways with the controversial Day of Truth event that they have managed for the last five years. This event was created to counter the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network’s (GLSEN) Day of Silence, which aims to bring attention to the bullying epidemic.

The Day of Truth was started by the anti-gay Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) after a California high school student wore a t-shirt to school on the Day of Silence that said “I Will Not Accept What God Has Condemned” on the front and “Homosexuality Is Shameful, Romans 1:27” on the back. He was asked to remove the shirt and the next day he wore another shirt saying "Be Ashamed. Our School Embraced What God Has Condemned."

The Day of Truth toned down its rhetoric, but the goal of the event is to target students who are perceived to be gay with the message that they can change their sexual orientation through Christ.

With Exodus handing control of the event back to the Alliance Defense Fund, there is a very real chance that this adversarial anti-gay event could be abolished. The Day of Truth Website has been stripped down and right now ADF is deciding whether to continue or end this event. Let's help them make the right decision. Please sign this petition telling ADF to dissolve the Day of Truth. This is a time to focus on how to end the bullying epidemic and ending this divisive day would be a very positive step in making students feel more comfortable in school.

With your help, ADF will follow Exodus International’s lead and make the right decision for the safety of our young people.

Photo credit: wbsesen's YouTube

by Adam Amel Rogers, Originally posted on change.org
Two major affinities in my life are LGBT equality and football. Oftentimes, when these two entities collide, it involves a publicist having to write an apology for an anti-gay epithet.  Most of the time though, I am left wondering how the players I root for feel about gay rights.

Yesterday, I happened on the Twitter account of former Super Bowl MVP and current Dancing with the Stars contestant Kurt Warner. Warner has never made his devout Christianity a secret. His faith is extremely important to him, as evidenced in his most popular tweet yesterday:

@kurt13warner: Like 2 think I engage ALL my fans - but gotta say JESUS is my favorite topic - that a problem?

I think it is pretty universally accepted that Kurt Warner is a nice upstanding guy, but his zeal for organized religion has always made me wonder how he feels about gay people.

Kurt’s tweet stream has helped begin to answer that question.

He first tweeted that he was hanging out with Eric Stonestreet, who plays ½ of Modern Family’s gay couple, on the set of Access Hollywood. This tweet prompted some anti-gay replies, which a lot of professional athletes probably would have ignored or affirmed.

Kurt didn’t ignore the comments, instead he countered the anti-gay tweets by saying:

@kurt13warner Lots of comments about gay couple on ModernFamily, what do u say WE just Love ppl & let God do the judging! Who's with me?

I’m with you Kurt! I think.

I am happy that he took a stand against anti-gay comments. I am happy that he loves people. I am less happy about the “God do the judging” part of the tweet. It reminded me of an interview Kurt gave last year where he said, without hesitation, that he is worried about friends and family who might be going to Hell.

Twitter user Michelle Levy called Kurt out on the loaded tweet, saying "my 2 cents... love all and let g-d judge when referencing gays is super condescending and a way to say you think it is wrong." This prompted Kurt to reply and reiterate his original statement, "My point isn't 2 prove right or wrong, thats God's job, my point is 2 love all ppl the same & lead them 2 Jesus!"

I have never understood the whole “I’m cool with you, but God is totally sending you to Hell” business, but I do think Kurt’s gay tweet is a step in the right direction. While his mild defense of gay people is not nearly on the level of NFL players Scott Fujita and Brendon Ayanbadejo, who both proclaimed their support of marriage equality, it is definitely better than the anti-gay tweets of Larry Johnson and Todd Herremans.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

by Adam Amel Rogers, Originally posted on change.org
Last night’s episode of Glee is being hailed by critics and fans as one of the best episodes yet and there is already chatter about a second Emmy nomination for Chris Colfer, who portrays the openly gay character, Kurt Hummel. For me, the episode struck a nerve, brought back bad memories and was extremely uncomfortable to watch.

In the episode, Kurt’s father (who previously warmed our hearts with a beautiful coming out scene) suffers a heart attack and while most of Kurt’s classmates turn to God for comfort and guidance, Kurt rebuffs all prayers and religious talk as he professes his atheism.

In my (sometimes unpopular) quest to see complex LGBT characters, I was hoping that the show would go the opposite direction and have Kurt embrace God to showcase the religious diversity in the LGBT community. I was yelling at the TV for him to not be so angry toward the religious advances – I could see the anti-gay articles forming about how the gay character is anti-God.

I get it though. I understand why Kurt was so quick to dismiss any talk of God. I understand all too well – unfortunately, Kurt’s anti-religious feelings hit close to home for me and for many other gay people.

Even the most devout gay believers have been burned by religion and we all have the nightmare wounds to prove it. For me, it was being a 12-year-old closeted boy sitting in a rural Nebraska church trying not to cry as the pastor dedicated his entire sermon to the Hell-worthy trespasses of AIDS-carrying homosexuals.  Or there was the time at a friend’s wedding, where the priest took the opportunity to talk about how we must resist the demons behind homosexual marriage.

The money and the power behind our movement’s opposition is almost exclusively religious based, so it makes sense that Kurt would not feel that religion is the most comforting place to turn in his time of need. In the end, I am happy that Kurt’s religious response was portrayed in this devastatingly realistic way.

Moving forward though, we do need to eventually evolve the conversation. Oftentimes our fight for equality is framed in a religion vs. gay rights dynamic. We need to rebel against this frame – religion and LGBT issues are not antithetical to each other, there are straight religious advocates for equality and there are very religious gay people. Despite all the pain that has been endured, many LGBT people have found religious homes in welcoming environments and I do hope that this religious diversity is eventually reflected in portrayals of gay characters.

Photo credit: GleeFanVideos YouTube