It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living

I’ve read this book on MANY occasions since it came out right after I graduated high school. It does get better, and there may be times even years later that you need that little reminder. This book is great to read, reread, and gift to any area library where LGBTQUI children may need a bit of help coping.

What is there to say? Of course this book is great. The entire It Gets Better Project is great and it is making a difference in the lives of LGBT youth. It started with videos, expanded to public service announcements on TV and on March 22, 2011, the six-month of anniversary of Dan and Terry's video going live on YouTube, the book came out, extending the project to a print platform.It seems a little backwards, doesn't it? Doesn't the movie usually get made from the book? Well yes, but Dan and Terry had a great idea to use social networking as a way to speak directly to LGBT youth. The phenomenal success of the project (at present, there are more than 10,000 videos at the It Gets Better website) demonstrates that there is a need, interest, and support for outreach to young people who may be struggling with their feelings and fears.And now there is the book. One goal of the project is to have a copy of the book in every single library in the US. Because, guess what--there are probably kids out there who don't have access to the Internet, or whose parents won't let them watch YouTube, or who are so fearful and afraid of what might happen to them if someone found out they were surfing the `net for info on being gay that they don't. So this vast resource that has been created in six short months is not available to them. But hopefully they have access to a library, whether in their school or town, and they can go there and find this book and realize: it gets better.If you've watched any of the videos, you know what the essays in the book are like. Many are transcribed from the videos but there is also new content, or in Terry Miller's words, "Videos that haven't been made yet." There are lots of famous names but also plenty of stories from ordinary people. The variety of emotions, topics, and thoughts that are presented are important--it is clear that Savage and Miller wanted to make sure that every base was covered so that no child who reads this would feel left out--no matter who you are, where you live, or what your circumstance there is someone else out there in the world who has gone through what you are going through and came out on the other side--and is able to say: it gets better.This is not the sort of book to read straight through--it's not a novel, after all. It's better to flip though and read essays at random, bookmark those that resonate, and make notes (if you are a note-making-in-the-book type of person). Fortunately, the publisher realized these features apply to e-readers as well as those who enjoy print. The table of contents is linked so that on my Kindle, it was very easy to skip from chapter to chapter.I think this is an important book to own and equally important to pass on. Consider, please, if you can afford it, buying a copy to give to a friend, a young person, or a library. I just gifted a copy of the paperback to my daughter's high school. Won't you join me and do the same?Highly recommended.

Continuing the lifesaving efforts started with the It Gets Better Project on YouTube, writer Dan Savage and his partner Terry Miller have collected over 100 essays written to teens from celebrities, political leaders and everyday people in the book "It Gets Better." While it's admirable that the collection contains contributors such as President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, young readers will more likely relate with the LGBT adults who candidly share their firsthand experience of coming out, overcoming obstacles and creating a life worth living.Among my personal favorites by known names within the community are the contributors Alison Bechdel, Kate Bornstein, Kate Clinton and Urvashi Vaid. And I must mention that the book includes an essay by one of my favorite writers, David Sedaris.In his essay, Sedaris notes: "A gay fourteen-year-old in the year 2010, even one living in the smallest of towns, must surely know that he's not the only homosexual on earth. He might need reminding, though, that all the best people are tormented in junior high school. If they're not getting harassed for being gay, they're bound to get it for being too smart, too loud, or too independent. It's always something, and then you get older, and things change for the better."Many of the essays that touched me the most are from everyday people, and from various artists with whom I've been introduced by reading this book. For me, a particularly memorable essay is by Gabrielle Rivera, a writer, poet and film director, born and raised in the Bronx, NY."First of all," Rivera writes, "it doesn't get better but what does happen is this: You get stronger. You realize what's going on; you see how people are; you see how the world is. And as an adult, you learn how to deal with it. You learn that other people are just crazy and caught up in their own crap."No matter what our age or the progression of our coming-out process, there are always times when we need encouragement. I suggest reading "It Gets Better." And afterward, consider giving the book to someone else -- perhaps an LGBT or questioning youth.Looking for another reason to buy the book? All proceeds will be donated to LGBT youth charities.

I had high hopes for this book, based on Savage's previous books  Savage Love: Straight Answers from America's Most Popular Sex Columnist , Skipping Towards Gomorrah , The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family  and  The Kid : What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant . Those books made me laugh, made me cry, made me angry, made me sad -- in short Dan's the type of writer that you totally forget your steak on the stove while turning pages.Alas,  It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living  is not one of those books. The introduction by Dan is great, and the afterward by his husband Terry is (surprise!) equally good -- but in between are a lot of dreary essays, all telling the same story. I was bullied and abused as a gay teen, but I survived and look at me now, I'm fabulous. There are some famous people represented, some not-so-famous (and some whose writing means they OUGHT to be famous any time now). The President and Secretary of State weigh in with predictable essays. Suze Orman talks about how famous she is. David Sedaris turns in a witty essay.But the vast majority of the 103 essays are meh at best. I guess if the It Gets Better Project keeps one troubled teen from ending his or her life prematurely it's well worth it. But it's not a book you'll read for pleasure over and over, regardless of your orientation.

I am a great fan of Dan Savage and his warm and very stark advice on sexual matters from his Seattle lair (he also now travels all over spreading the word) and his caustic but witty commentaries on the humbuggery of those who make life so tough for people who are gay.His initiative in launching YouTube messages to try to stem the flow of gay and lesbian teen suicides - and suicides of those fingered as gay but not - mushroomed well beyond his own and anyone else's imagination so that now there have been thousands of such messages.This is a compilation of barely a hundred of those messages, and in a way the warmth of the human straight to camera messages on YouTube is slightly lost in the cold print on page. That's a great shame. Personally I would have omitted the messages from Nancy Pelosi and David Cameron, which read to me like going through motions messages, though keeping that from President Obama. It is the messages from folk who are actually lesbian or gay and who now live happy lives despite all they went through that are the most inspirational.With that caveat I thoroughly commend this book. Every school library and youth club should have it, casually left where a teen can pick it up. And if you're the parent of a kid you suspect might be gay, get it and leave it around likewise - this may help him/her come out to you, the first step in the rest of their life.

This book is simply uplifting (even the hard passages). As someone who is in the process of coming out later in life it is a piercing education.

Experiencias, emociones, historias, vivencias, sentimientos... Hay tanto en todos y cada uno de los mensajes que componen este libro, que me quedo corto en palabras para poder describir lo que significa entrar en el mundo privado de personas LGBTIQ+ que comparten aquí, sin tapujos, aquellos momentos difíciles que han dado paso a unas vidas más plenas y felices.