Sex advice columnist, author and
founder of the It
Gets Better Project Dan Savage has praised President Barack
Obama's support of gay teens.
In a videotaped message for the
campaign, Obama says he was “shocked and saddened” to learn about
the recent spate of gay teens bullied to death.
“As a parent of two daughters it
breaks my heart,” Obama says. “It's something that just
shouldn't happen in this country.”
“We have to dispel this myth that
bullying is just a normal rite of passage. That it's some inevitable
part of growing up. It's not.”
Obama adds that he sympathizes with gay
teens being bullied because they are different: “I don't know what
it's like to be picked on for being gay. But I do know what it's
like to grow up feeling that sometimes you don't belong. It's
tough.”
In an appearance Monday on the
Seattle-based talk show New Day Northwest, Savage said he was
moved by the president's comments.
“I thought it was very important that
he made the video that he did and he said so emphatically to LGBT
kids that there is nothing wrong with you,” Savage told his host.
“And by implication, what he's saying is there is something wrong
with the people that are telling you that there is something wrong
with you.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this
page.)
Other political leaders who have added
their voices to the project include Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton, New
York Governor David Paterson and UK
Prime Minister David Cameron.