Three Boston Red Sox – first baseman
Kevin Youkilis, catcher Jason Varitek, manager Terry Francona – are
featured in an It Gets Better video that reaches out to troubled gay
teens.
In the 60-second video, a young female
fan says: “I am a member of the GLBT community. And I have
experienced bullying myself. It makes you feel like even more of an
outsider.”
“Doesn't matter your sexual
orientation, your beliefs in life,” Youkilis says, “It's OK to be
your own unique being,” Varitek continues, “You can talk to
people,” the female fan says, “Whether it's teachers, counselors,
friends,” Francona adds. (The video is embedded in the right panel
of this page.)
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 troubled gay teens to not cave in to bullies, because life
eventually gets better.
The team was encouraged to produce the
video by Sam Maden, who started an online petition drive asking the
Red Sox to join the campaign. Maden said he started the petition
drive in honor of his late uncle Chris Nutile, who was gay.
“The Red Sox are my favorite team,
and when I saw the Giants were doing it, I really wanted to get them
to do it too,” Maden told The Boston Globe. “I see kids
who are bullies, I see them everyday. I do what I can to get them to
stop, and I thought this might make it better.”
“Bullying is something that has
touched many of our lives either personally or through someone we
love,” said Red Sox senior vice president of public
affairs/marketing Susan Goodenow. “We are proud of dedicated Red
Sox fans like 12-year-old Sam Maden who took the courageous step
recently to publicly stand up against bullying of LGBT youth, and we
are honored to join Sam and others throughout Red Sox Nation in
support of the It Gets Better Project.”
Three additional MLB teams, the Chicago
Cubs, the Seattle Mariners and the San
Francisco Giants, have joined the campaign, though
the Mariners have yet to release their video.