The NOH8
Campaign on Thursday released two videos featuring prominent
celebrities talking about gay bullying.
The videos support The
Trevor Project, the California-based non-profit that runs the
nation's only 24-hour, toll-free suicide hotline for gay and
questioning youth. The group has received nationwide attention
following the launch of sex advice columnist and activist Dan
Savage's It
Gets Better Project, a collection of inspiring videos that lets
troubled gay teens know that it gets better and urges them to call
The Trevor Project for help.
“I've been stared at, pointed at,
laughed at, made fun of, but I survived,” four-foot tall Meredith
Hope Eaton of ABC's Boston Legal says.
“You might feel like no one
understands,” actress Tori Spelling says, then Criminal Minds
star Kirsten Vangsness adds, “And no one cares.”
“But I understand,” says Alec Mapa.
(The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)
The NOH8 Campaign, which is best known
for raising funds and awareness to defeat Proposition 8, is helmed by
photographer-activist Adam Bouska and his partner Jeff Parshley.
The group's iconic photographs feature
celebrities and everyday folks with their mouths duct taped and the
campaign's familiar “NOH8” slogan often written on one cheek.
The
second video stars Slash, Gene Simmons and Kat Von D.