San Francisco Giants to Let LGBT Youth Know “It Gets Better”

Published: 21^st May 11 6:05 pm

Danielle Parenteau
Danielle Parenteau

2 Rants

The San Francisco Giants recently announced plans to become the first professional sports team involved in the “It Gets Better” project, which is targeted at LGBT youth.

“It Gets Better” was started by Dan Savage in response to the recent rash of teenage suicides brought on by anti-LGBT bullying. (LGBT = lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender).

From ItGetsBetter.org:

In September 2010, syndicated columnist and author Dan Savage created a YouTube video with his partner Terry to inspire hope for young people facing harassment. In response to a number of students taking their own lives after being bullied in school, they wanted to create a personal way for supporters everywhere to tell LGBT youth that, yes, it does indeed get better.

Two months later, the It Gets Better Project (TM) has turned into a worldwide movement, inspiring over 10,000 user-created videos viewed over 35 million times. To date, the project has received submissions from celebrities, organizations, activists, politicians and media personalities, including President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Adam Lambert, Anne Hathaway, Colin Farrell, Matthew Morrison of “Glee”, Joe Jonas, Joel Madden, Ke$ha, Sarah Silverman, Tim Gunn, Ellen DeGeneres, Suze Orman, the staffs of The Gap, Google, Facebook, Pixar, the Broadway community, and many more. For us, every video changes a life. It doesn’t matter who makes it.

The website www.itgetsbetter.org is a place where young people who are lesbian, gay, bi, or trans can see how love and happiness can be a reality in their future. It’s a place where our straight allies can visit and support their friends and family members. It’s a place where people can share their stories, take the It Gets Better Project pledge, watch videos of love and support, and seek help through the Trevor Project and GLSEN.

Accountant and San Francisco resident Sean Chapin, 35, started a petition on the website Change.org urging the Giants to join the project.

The petition has received 6,592 signatures and been designated as a “Victory!” on the website. Notable signers include San Francisco mayoral candidates Phil Ting, Sen. Leland Yee, Joanna Rees and David Chiu (also President, Board of Supervisors), plus Scott Wiener of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

The Giants had already planned to make a video to coincide with their ninth annual LGBT Night, to be held Aug. 29.

The petition and the response it received has prompted the Giants to speed the process along.

However, details regarding the video, including who could be in it, have not yet been determined.

Read more on Yahoo! Sports, which also linked to a story I wrote about Tim Lincecum donating money to help Bryan Stow.

I must say as an avid supporter of both the Giants and gay rights, I am extremely pleased to hear this news.

I feel strongly about a variety of social and other issues, but gay rights is among a select few I feel most passionately about. And it is only appropriate that a team that plays in San Francisco, one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world, take such a lead in furthering the cause.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise the Giants would take such a stand.

Giants managing partner Bill Neukom was a 2007 recipient of the Allies for Justice Award from the National LGBT Bar Association, along with then San Francisco mayor and current lieutenant governor of California Gavin Newsom.

Each year, the National LGBT Bar Association honors a legal professional who, in their position of leadership, has allied with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and has made a noteworthy contribution to the struggle for civil rights and equality before the law. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_LGBT_Bar_Association)

Neukom’s predecessor, Peter Magowan, also voiced his support for gay rights on Outsports.com.

“‘It would not bother me if one of my players came out of the closet. He would get my support,’ San Francisco Giants owner Peter Magowan told the Sacramento Bee.”

Furthermore, there are those who think sports and politics should be separate, but I personally find it refreshing.

These sportsmen are human beings, many of them American citizens, who have every right to — and should — have beliefs and stand up for whatever it is they believe in.

In my opinion, it is so much better to hear about something like this than that infamous Michael Jordan line, “Republicans buy shoes, too.”