The Seattle Mariners on Thursday
announced they would become the fourth MLB team to record an It Gets
Better video, USA Today reported.
The moves comes less than a week after
the Boston Red Sox agreed – at
the prompting of 12-year-old Sam Maden – to join the campaign.
The
It Gets Better Project encourages gay teens to not cave in to
bullies, because life eventually gets better. The video campaign is
helmed by gay activist and Seattle alternative The Stranger
editor Dan Savage.
Two weeks ago, the
San Francisco Giants became the first MLB team to complete a video
for the campaign. Days later, the
Chicago Cubs announced they'll record their own video.
Unlike the Red Sox, who gave Maden's
Change.org petition credit for the idea, the Mariners said they had
been working on the project since the Giants debuted their video and
were not influenced by a petition begun by 22-year-old Army veteran
Eric Williams, who is gay.
“I had nobody, there were no gay
people in my area,” Williams said of growing up in Missouri.
“Seeing this project that puts big names and regular faces out
there and tells kids that it does get better is such an awesome
thing.”
Writing
at the It Gets Better blog, Savage said that he's thrilled by the
attention MLB teams are bringing to the project, but added that the
“most important IGB videos are still the ones created by average,
everyday, ordinary LGBT adults.”