It Got Better Project

I created a thread about the video of It Got Better project featuring George Takei. There are other celebrities who have shared their experience about being an LGBTQ+ and how it got better for them. I decided to keep that first thread about George Takei and create a new one that has some of the other It Got Better videos.

Tegan & Sara: Tegan and Sara are a Canadian indie rock/indie pop duo formed in 1995 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, composed of identical twin sisters Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Kiersten Quin.


Tim Gunn: Timothy M. "Tim" Gunn is an American fashion consultant, television personality, actor, and voice actor


Laverne Cox: Laverne Cox is an American actress, reality television star, television producer, and LGBTQ advocate. Cox is perhaps best known for portraying Sophia Burset in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black.


Jason Collins: Jason Paul Collins is an American professional basketball center for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association. Collins attended Stanford University, where he was an All-American in 2000–01


Watching these videos has given me great respect for these celebrities and what they had to deal with growing up 50's-70's as a non heterosexual person. I was especially moved by Laverne Cox and the struggles she had to face. I'm glad that when she tried to kill herself she wasn't successful. I'm also glad that Tim Gunn wasn't successful in killing himself.

It really makes me appreciate that I was born in the late 80's and had a lot of people help pave the way to a more accepting stance towards LGBTQ.

I remember when Ellen came out and her show was canceled back in 1998. I had loved watching her show & didn't know why it got canceled. I remember asking my Mom why the show was canceled and her telling me it was because she came out as a lesbian. I didn't understand why her being a lesbian made any difference so my Mom explained to me that being LGBTQ+ was still greatly frowned upon and not accepted. She told me what happened to Elton John & to George Michael. It still didn't make any sense to me as to why they should be treated so differently but I just accepted that some people were intolerant and afraid. I felt bad that those people who were gay or lesbians (because back then that was all I knew existed) were being treated differently, especially celebrities. Elton John & George Michaels music wasn't any different and Ellen wasn't any less funny.

When I got older I was able to better understand why people viewed LGBTQ+ as different but I still felt it was stupid because they were humans just like any other heterosexual person. To me, even as a teenager, I thought of their difference as equivalent to the differences between races. Just because someone was African American instead of Caucasian didn't make them any less human and the same went for a LGBTQ+ not being any less of a human than a heterosexual.

Watching the Tyra Banks show really helped me to understand the LGBTQ+ community better, especially as I had recently acknowledged the fact that I was bi sexual. I learned about the hate within the LGBTQ+ for other members, (gays & lesbians hating bisexuals) and was shocked that they weren't sympathetic of the others struggles and weren't tolerant of them. I also heard for the first time "Gay is the new Black" and hearing the reasoning as to why the gentleman had said that, (a gay African American male) I was able to see the correlation between the two and completely agree that Gay is the new black. Especially now that segregation has reared it's ugly head again.

I am sharing these videos and my own experiences/thoughts in hopes that it helps other LGBTQ+ who are still struggling with their identity. I'm not posting this to pick a fight with those who disagree and think we are sinners, you can keep that opinion to yourself. I strongly do not think that God made LGBTQ+ to be sinners and that we are going to hell for it, I don't think God is that mean.

I really enjoyed these videos and your story. Thanks for posting this.

Many people don't have an understanding of why LGBTQ+ people are "proud" and these are wonderful illustrations of that. If I lived my life in shame, with societal pressure constantly reminding me that I was somehow "wrong" or "bad", being put in the hospital for my natural feelings, I would certainly be proud to find my way out of that nightmare and realize what it means to be myself for the first time.

The haters don't realize that it's THEIR actions, opinions and beliefs that create people who are ashamed and filled with self-hatred - who eventually come to terms with themselves and then feel "proud" that they've made it through. So many ask, "why be proud of who you have sex with"? And it's SO much more than that. There's an entire lifetime of shame and fear behind every proud LGBTQ+ person in the US.

I hope some people watch these and get a better understanding.

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

You said some really beautiful things. You are bang on with what you said.

When I was a young teenager I just thought that I appreciated how beautiful women can be & didn't realize that it was more than just an appreciation till I was almost out of high school. I knew for sure I was bisexual after I made out with one of my bisexual friends, I didn't realize at the time she was bisexual. I didn't know until I found her on a LGBTQ+ dating site & then we talked more about it.

I think it's hard for LGBTQ+ people in my town because there are 59 churches in a town with a population of just over 38,000.

I had to leave my church when I realized I was bisexual because I knew they thought I was a sinner. It was very hard for me because I had belonged to that church for 8yrs and the congregation was very nice & knew my family very well. We had started going there when we moved to the town & the church supported us through my families illnesses.
I had to do some soul searching because I didn't think it was fair that god made me bisexual only for me to go straight to hell & have no hope for redemption. I prayed and asked god to give me a sign that if it was a sin for me to be bisexual I would try not to be. I waited for a couple weeks and received no signs. From there I branched out into spirituality & still try to live my life without committing sins by following the Golden Rule of "Do to others what you would want them to do to you" Which imo sums up the 10 commandments.