Video: It Gets Better for Queer Youth · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

The It Gets Better Project was started by Dan Savage as a way of preventing gay teens from committing suicide through videos explaining what gay adult life could be: lots better.  And from different corners of the world, other people are also sharing their stories.
Dave talks about growing up to a family of religious missionaries in Israel, how he even came to think that exorcism would be a solution to his problems and about his efforts to try and make sense of his faith in regards to his sexual orientation.
From Finland, a group of people share their experiences growing up queer. The video was presented in the TedXHelsinki conference. It is subtitled in Swedish and English:
Bashar Makhay speaks about the process of accepting his identity as a middle eastern gay man, or as he calls himself, a “Gay Chaldean Iraqi American Christian Progressive Man”. Video has English subtitles if you press the cc button:
A gay Muslim youth speaks about growing up in a very religious Shi'a Muslim Pakistani household: how he dealt with harassment, his religious beliefs and his family's take on his his sexuality:
From the Spanish speaking community there are several videos found under the title “Todo va a Mejorar”. One such video was uploaded by
Constantino from Guatemala who currently lives in New York City. He speaks about growing up in a chauvinistic society, his doubts and how just hanging on and following your dreams can go a long way: He is currently living his dream.
As a first generation immigrant from Greece, greekcub tells of the importance of being true to yourself, despite the traditional cultural norms that may seem incompatible with happiness, and at the end, he records a special message for any queer Greek teens going through rough times:
And finally, Kelly Kim explains in ASL how it was for him to grow up being picked on for being deaf and being bullied, afraid for his Korean family's reaction to his sexual identity until he finally decided to come out of the closet. The video is captioned in English:
There are many more videos both on the It Gets Better Project website as well as on YouTube. And hopefully, any teen being bullied because they are different will be able to find support and inspiration in these videos and stories.