The San Francisco Giants will become
the first MLB team to reach out to troubled LGBT teens by recording
an It Gets Better video, the
San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The It Gets Better Project begun by gay
activist Dan Savage has received enormous support from Hollywood, the
business community and leading Democrats, including President Barack
Obama. The campaign encourages gay teens to not cave in to bullies,
because life eventually gets better.
The Giants announced on Monday that
they would participate in the campaign.
The news comes after lifelong Giants
fan Sean Chapin gathered more than 6,000 signatures for an online
petition urging his hometown team to get on board.
The 35-year-old Chapin called the
team's decision as a “breaking bubble” that will have profound
reverberations.
A Giants spokeswoman told the paper
that the team had considered joining the campaign before Chapin
started his petition drive, but conceded it had affected their
decision to speed up the process.
The news comes on the heels of Phoenix
Suns players Grant Hill and Jared Dudley appearing in an anti-gay
bullying ad for GLSEN and CEO
Rick Welts' Sunday announcement that he's gay. Welts told the
New York Times that
his decision to come out was driven in part by a desire to help gay
youth.