In commenting on Jamie Hubley's death,
Rick Mercer, a Canadian comedian, television personality and
political satirist, says more gay folks need to come out.
Hubley is the 15-year-old teen from
Ottawa, Canada who was
bullied to death after he announced he was gay.
In his 90-second video rant, Mercer
says it's not enough to tell gay teens that it will eventually “get
better,” a reference to the It Gets Better campaign that urges LGBT
teens to hang in there, because life gets better.
“It's no longer good enough for us to
tell kids who are different that it's going to get better,” Mercer
says. “We have to make it better now.”
Mercer argues that it should no longer
be acceptable for gay public figures to remain closeted.
“If you're gay and you're in public
life, I'm sorry, you don't have to run around with a Pride flag and
bore everyone, but you can't be invisible, not anymore,” he says.
(The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)
The openly gay Mercer, however, was
criticized for not declaring his own sexual orientation in the video.