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Monday, January 23, 2012

LGBTQITSLFA It Gets Better: Active-Duty U.S. Soldiers

Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 5:51 AM

This video was unimaginable eighteen months ago when we started the "It Gets Better" Project—its existence is evidence itself that it does get better when we fight to make it better. (Now let's make it better for all our troops in Afghanistan, LGBT or straight, by bringing them home.)

Comments (18) RSS

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This is amazing. Thank you for the It Gets Better Project, Dan.

Posted by TechBear on January 23, 2012 at 6:12 AM

Super awesome. The low production value added to the charm and made it seem more. . . normal I guess. Made of awesome sauce.

Posted by Painy on January 23, 2012 at 6:18 AM

"if you believe in yourself you can do anything"

What a stupid thing to say, please stop saying it.

Posted by Mattyx on January 23, 2012 at 6:29 AM

That's great but... Certainly a message for export and not local consumption? What do you tell gays in Afghanistan and similar locales who are not on US military bases?

Posted by BLUE on January 23, 2012 at 6:40 AM

@3 but saying "if you believe in yourself you may be able to accomplish some things, but others will be out of reach until long after your eventual death" doesn't have the same ring to it.

Posted by Painy on January 23, 2012 at 6:46 AM

#4 There is always more work to do, but really, my first reaction is thankfulness for the success that this video is. I'll get back to my cynical self an few minutes.

Posted by geoz on January 23, 2012 at 6:59 AM

@4 (Blue) oh don't be such a jerk. No one was saying that this short, uplifting video wasn't meant to solve all homophobia across the globe and for those living closeted lives in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Posted by Marie2922 on January 23, 2012 at 7:18 AM

Skeptics being proved wrong all over:

Seabees team makes history in Afghanistan

In the rocky mountains of Helmand province the group from Port Hueneme becomes the first all-female team in Seabees history to take on and complete a construction project...

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-…

Posted by rob!

on January 23, 2012 at 7:22 AM

butt! Obama said Afghanitranny is a NECESSARY WAR!!

you can't pull out when you're in a NECESSARY WAR!!

you might spill your gay seed on the ground or something.....

Posted by NECESSARY WAR!! is bad for children and other living things on January 23, 2012 at 7:47 AM

@6@7 Not a cynic. Not a jerk. Probably wouldn't have opened my trap if Savage hadn't opened his. "It get's better" is a nice simple, clear, uplifting, happy... message. "...bringing them home." complicates that message. If he's gonna go there then that raises the question of what we've done, what we're doing, and what we're going to do. Did we make it better for any Afghanis? Will we? Just killin' 'em for sport? Why go there?

Posted by BLUE on January 23, 2012 at 8:02 AM

@9: You pull out once you're done, don't you? PROTIP: If you are ever so lucky as to stick your dick in someone, they will not thank you for leaving it in them after you've blown your load.
Osama bin Laden is fish food, and most of his lieutenants are dirt-surfing in various states of perforation and dismemberment. Afghanistan is about as stable as foreign troops can make it. It's time to get the lead out.
Haters gonna hate.

Posted by venomlash on January 23, 2012 at 8:10 AM

That song they wrote for the ending montage is very catchy, if you ask me.

Posted by gloomy gus on January 23, 2012 at 8:14 AM

Great video! They look happy, healthy and very well adjusted. We're awaiting your safe arrival home, troops!

Posted by despicable me on January 23, 2012 at 9:06 AM

@BLUE - these troops are just trying to reach out & inspire kids back home.

@3, @5 - "You can do anything, you just gotta belieeeeve!" might be too simplistic, but man - life is, with all its pain, difficulties & travails, SO much better for me than it was in high school. If that's what we're trying to tell kids - that life after school is hard, but you have more of the reins in your hands - that's a message I can get behind 100%.

..and I guess if active duty military, who are risking their life & limb for us, can stop & makes an It Gets Better" video, than I can too. Been saying I'll do so for awhile now. Horribly camera shy.

Posted by Eva Hopkins

on January 23, 2012 at 9:41 AM

I'm in total agreement with #4. It'll get better... after we bomb your house and kill your family. Then you won't have those pesky parents bugging you all the time wondering if you've met any pretty girls.

Posted by TotesFierce

on January 23, 2012 at 9:55 AM

Mattyx @3, you CAN do impossible things if you believe in yourself. I was in a car accident that was so bad that I was pronounced DOA; my left leg was crushed, I had a broken pelvis, 3 broken vertebrae, etc., etc. In the hospital they insisted that I would eventually have to have my left leg amputated - I refused and it is still on. Then the doctors said I'd never walk again, I'd be in a wheelchair all my life, I hated the wheelchair and worked to walk. Then they said I'd need crutches and a brace for the rest of my life - then a cane for the rest of my life... I walk perfectly well, thank you. I can't walk as far as I could before the accident but I can walk almost mile without limping. I believed in myself and I worked really, really hard. [If you don't believe you can do it, then you won't be able to work steadily towards your goal.]

Yeah, superstardom maybe out of reach, if that is your dream, but people can do amazing things if they believe and put their minds to it. So I hope that people keep on saying "you can do anything" forever.

Sorry to hijack the thread.

Posted by Schweighsr on January 23, 2012 at 10:42 AM