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Monday, May 16, 2011

LGBTQITSLFA It Gets Better: SF Giants

Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, May 16, 2011 at 7:15 PM

The San Francisco Giants told SF Weekly today that the team will make an iconic "It Gets Better" video to encourage LGBT youth across the nation. The Giants will be the first professional sports team to join the spirited campaign aimed at curbing LGBT bullying and teen suicides. According to Staci Slaughter, spokeswoman for the Giants, the team was already considering creating a video even before the change.org petition circulated last week, which requested that the Giants be the first sports team to join the campaign. More than 6,500 people have signed the petition. The It Gets Better Project started in 2010 after a slew of LGBT suicides across the nation. Since then, thousands of ordinary people, celebrities, and politicians have made videos.

I'm very, very, very gay, Sloggers, so help me out: aren't the Giants the current World Series of Baseball champions of the whole world?

UPDATE: SF Chronicle:

Lifelong Giants fan Sean Chapin began an online petition drive on the website change.org to get the Giants on board, and convinced more than 6,000 people to sign on. "The San Francisco Giants are in an extraordinary position to lead the rest of the professional sporting world and possibly make the most important 'It Gets Better' video yet—not just as the recent world champion of Major League Baseball, but also as ambassadors of an iconic city, revered for celebrating diversity and differences with open arms," Chapin said in his own online video pitch to the Giants.

In an interview today, Chapin, a 35-year-old accountant who lives in San Francisco and works in Oakland, described the team's decision as a "breaking bubble" that will have profound reverberations. Giants' spokeswoman Staci Slaughter said today that the team already had been thinking of joining the campaign before Chapin started his petition drive, but his efforts speeded things up.

Dang, Sean, well done! (Sean's video pitch to the SF Giants is here.)

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Comments (39) RSS

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Dang you, Dan Savage. I just saw your Google commercial on my recording of SNL and, again, it made my cry. You totes owe me a mascara.

Posted by Luckier on May 16, 2011 at 7:17 PM

Check the front page of the SF Chronicle website - it's the top story:
http://www.sfgate.com/

Posted by patrick66 on May 16, 2011 at 7:21 PM

OMG, they're like the best basketball team ever to score a touchdown!

Posted by seandr on May 16, 2011 at 7:21 PM

Jesus, I must be more gay than you, Dan. I have no earthly idea. Aren't they a basketball team? I find all of these sports very confusing. Except for soccer. Men or women playing. I like the part where they whip off their shirt at the end of the game. Men or women. Yum.

...Giants? Anyway, CONGRATS! GO IGBP! Subsume all the major sports teams!!

Posted by BEG

on May 16, 2011 at 7:33 PM

That is indeed delightfully incredible!

Posted by raindrop on May 16, 2011 at 7:41 PM

Leading in their division at the moment, as well. Great team.

Posted by Cory on May 16, 2011 at 7:41 PM

C'mon I live in SF and had to endure the damn series whenever the hell it was but even I know about the lunatic foxes on the team.

Brian "fear the beard" Wilson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4BO26nqP…

Tim "adorable stoner" Lynsecum
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story…

Buster "looks like a Mormon twink and that is his real first name" Posey
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Buster-Po…

Posted by patrick66 on May 16, 2011 at 7:44 PM

i don't know how to spell the stoners name

Tim Lincecum

Posted by patrick66 on May 16, 2011 at 7:45 PM

dan, the owner of the phoenix suns came out today.

Posted by scary tyler moore

on May 16, 2011 at 7:47 PM

they are now.

Posted by Adrian Ryan on May 16, 2011 at 7:53 PM

Just so you know, Dan, @ 9 is talking about a basketball team. One in the NBA, same as the Sonics were.

That stoner pitcher lives in Belltown, is from Bellevue originally, and it wouldn't surprise me if he reads The Stranger.

Posted by Matt from Denver on May 16, 2011 at 7:53 PM

dan i will take a complete 180 and praise your name at every chance under 1 condition: kanye west comes out as at least bi and makes a video

Posted by Swearengen on May 16, 2011 at 7:54 PM

Between this and gloria allred simulating anal with a bat, gaybies'll be dropping faster than poor white trash's credit rating.

And the PRESIDENT (not owner) of the phoenix suns is almost sixty. Who gives a fuck...guy's almost dead, and spent the majority of his life in the closet, ashamed of himself and a staunch supporter of antigay politicians. Non event.

Posted by PugilistPuck on May 16, 2011 at 7:55 PM

Will any active players be in the video?

Posted by DOUG.

on May 16, 2011 at 8:10 PM

Well, you can't deny that Brian Wilson is a friend to the leather community...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrkSElfm7…

Posted by UNPAID COMMENTER on May 16, 2011 at 8:40 PM

Veni. Vidi. Vixi.

Posted by slomopomo on May 16, 2011 at 8:42 PM

Oh, God. All levity aside, I was thoroughly confused by "SF Giants."

Isn't that NY Giants?

Yeah. In football. Ooooookaaaay.

Posted by BEG

on May 16, 2011 at 8:58 PM

Sometimes I am so proud to live in the Bay Area. Lately the Giants have been making me prouder.

Posted by nocutename on May 16, 2011 at 9:31 PM

Yay! That's my team makin' me proud. *sniff*. Cody Ross and Brian Wilson also did a kick ass fund raising video with Keenen Cahill for people with Maroteaux-Lamy syndrome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwYZ3LHHE…

Posted by bassplayerguy on May 16, 2011 at 9:40 PM

The Giants are a team of misfits and castaways from other teams, so they're perfect ambassadors for your message, as well as being defending World Series champions. Good for them, and for you!

Posted by Gern Blanston on May 16, 2011 at 9:41 PM

Big high five to Sean Chapin. I get goose bumps everytime I hear an IGBP promotion.

Dan, you and others could make it better for everyone by giving someone 2 minutes of your time.

Posted by despicable me on May 16, 2011 at 9:44 PM

The San Diego Padres (also a baseball team) occasionally do a silly promo/theme night that's basically a pitch to their town's huge military contingent and have them wear these dorky camouflage print uniforms. And so I've long been hoping SanFran would also make a play to their base and do a full leather uni, complete with the old school, studded, motorcycle hat. May be a few years down the road.

Hopefully all the other teams/sports follow SF's lead and do a video. Nice way to target a segment of the population that's not gonna be as readily exposed to these types of messages.

Posted by mikethehammer on May 16, 2011 at 9:55 PM

You know we're making progress when a highly public figure comes out and nobody gives a shit: http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/living/…

Posted by Terry Nguyen on May 16, 2011 at 10:02 PM

Fuck yeah.

Posted by OuterCow on May 16, 2011 at 10:17 PM

It should be noted that the Giants have been doing gay singles nights for a while too.

Posted by bassplayerguy on May 16, 2011 at 10:18 PM

Wow! Two words: sea change

Posted by jackseattle on May 16, 2011 at 10:20 PM

They're the current World Series of Baseball champions of the whole world, if by the whole world you mean the USA & Canada.

Posted by Camembert on May 16, 2011 at 10:47 PM

@23, true - this HAS to finally give Anderson Cooper the mojo to make his public coming out. Lemon's a public figure, but Coop's a highly public figure... I wonder if the publicity angle is what finally will do it. After all, Lemon timed his move because has an autobiography to sell, and maybe since Cooper has a syndicated afternoon chat show debuting soon that will be his final push.

Posted by gloomy gus on May 16, 2011 at 10:55 PM

Japan and australia have leagues too. "world series" is a misnomer.

Posted by razorclammer on May 16, 2011 at 11:17 PM

"after a slew of LGBT suicides across the nation..."

A 'slew'?

That's terrible.

How many teen homosexual suicides were occurring a month before IGB?

How many currently?

Posted by We're Making Progress! on May 16, 2011 at 11:31 PM

@17 My first thought was also the New York Giants. I've been waiting for Eli Manning to fucking grow a pair for so long...

Posted by Jennifer in Chicago

on May 17, 2011 at 5:44 AM

Not to rain on your parade, but ever-intelligent Scott Walker in Wisconsin is now looking to ban hospital visitations by same-sex couples.

Posted by Drew2u on May 17, 2011 at 5:49 AM

Do any of you know why it is called the World Series? I didn't think so. And why do the best players come here from Cuba, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Canada, japan, and unfortunately, Australia. The world's best players come here to play baseball.

Posted by fourfingersdown on May 17, 2011 at 7:45 AM

@33, yeah but that's probably because we're one of the few countries that a) play baseball b) watch baseball. Baseball just isn't very popular anywhere in the world except for the US, Canada and possibly Japan.

Posted by tazzo on May 17, 2011 at 11:04 AM

@34
The Dominican Republic, Cuba, Korea, Chinese Tapei, Australia etc. might argue with that comment. Baseball is actually a fairly international game these days. In the last 5 Olympics, the US has just 1 gold and 2 bronze. Cuba has 3 gold, 2 silver. While our best players don't play, it still says something.

@33
I'd say it's pretty much the World Series because it was named that in the late 1800s and at that point, rich white American baseball team owning men gave even less of a shit about the rest of the world than they do now.

Posted by Frank Rizzo on May 17, 2011 at 11:26 AM

The first time I ever went to a Giants game, the national anthem was performed on the field by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. They got great billing, too: a day game on a summer Saturday with thousands of families present. The Giants have been a progressive organization for a while.

Posted by tpalumbi on May 17, 2011 at 11:51 AM

@ 35 is correct. Baseball, basketball, and hockey are all internationally popular sports, but each is popular only with a few nations, which is why the US continues to be the only place with a truly premiere league in each sport, and the place that attracts the best players those nations have to offer.

Posted by Matt from Denver on May 17, 2011 at 11:53 AM

I'm sitting at home on a rare day off, watching the Giants game and reading Slog. Very happy to hear that our world champion band of misfits will be making a video for the IGBP. Our guys are just the ones to do it, and I will be very surprised if current players aren't in the video. Go Giants!

Posted by Laurie in SF on May 17, 2011 at 1:37 PM

Dan, I'm very, very, very, very gay, and I know the Giants are the reigning world champs. And they have a pitcher who's one of the most adorable athletes in all of sports: Tim Lincecum. He's just your type, Dan: trim bod, shaggy hair. Really dude, get into sports, it's OK, you won't start ordering Terry to get you a beer, I promise.

Posted by Chris in Vancouver WA on May 18, 2011 at 3:50 PM