By Samantha Chown, Staff Contributor
The colour purple was popping up across the city this past week as Oct. 20 was declared Spirit Day by the LGBTQ community. Purple attire was worn to commemorate the number of recent tragic suicides by LGBTQ teens in the United States. The suicides were directly related to bullying with homophobic tones.
In response to the suicides, Dan Savage, a nationally syndicated sex columnist and gay rights activist, launched the It Gets Better Project in late September. The project allows members of the LGBTQ community to post video testimonials telling teens their stories of bullying, coming out and how life does get better, especially after high school.
Over 1000 videos have been uploaded and the project’s YouTube channel has reached over 1,700,000 views. Even US President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton jumped on the bandwagon, posting a video each this past week.
Now Nova Scotia’s LGBTQ community is using the project’s momentum and popularity to start a new initiative of their own: It Gets Better Nova Scotia: A Call for Hope and Change.
Tanya Bloomfield, the creator of the Nova Scotia movement, says she was inspired by Savage’s campaign after suffering verbal and physical abuse throughout her high school years that lead to two different suicide attempts.
“Bullying leaves these permanent scars on your soul but the difference (between bullies and victims) is we get stronger and we’re able to deal with that and move forward,” she says.
It Gets Better NS says that nine out of ten LGBTQ students have experienced harassment at school, and that LGBTQ teens are four times more likely to commit suicide compared to their straight peers.
“We’re very concerned about what is not a new rash of suicides by gay, lesbian and transgender youth,” says Pamela Harrison, Provincial Coordinator for Transition House Association of Nova Scotia. “Rather, it was so obvious that we saw an opportunity to make an impression, to create some awareness to bring out in the open what should be out in the open all the time.”
They started a Facebook group inviting members of the community to rally together on Spirit Day to put an end to bullying and harassment. Harrison says she doesn’t know the number of suicides by LGBTQ teens in Nova Scotia but would be shocked if there weren’t any.
Bloomfield says the rally will most likely be an annual event with the group hosting smaller events throughout the year to foster community. They want to partner with schools and educate staff, parents and students on preventing gay bullying and help create gay/straight alliances in schools. Bloomfield says there are only two GSAs throughout Nova Scotia.
Adam Sterling, executive advisor of DalOUT, the LGBTQ student society at Dalhousie, says he was impressed with the number of people who attended the rally and the amount of purple he saw. However; he does feel that the Make It Better Project also has the right approach.
The Make it Better project was started by two American LGBTQ teens still in high school, as a different response to Savage’s campaign. They didn’t want to wait for things to get better, they wanted them better now. Their website, makeitbetterproject.org, offers LGBT teens advice on how to deal with bullying, create their own gay/straight alliances, and create a safe school environment.
Sterling agrees, saying, “People shouldn’t have to wait for it to get better. It should be better now.”
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