Keynote Speaker -- Dan Savage

The keynote speaker last night was none other than Dan Savage. Dan Savage, for those of you who don't know, is a writer who appears frequently on a variety of television shows, and NPR's This American Life. Savage, who is gay, also started the It Gets Better Project, which encourages GLBTQ adults to make videos encouraging teenagers who are GLBTQ, and are bullied by peers, adults, and family members that life does get better. The project has received a lot of attention and Savage and his husband have compiled many of the anecdotes in a book entitled, It Gets Better.
Savage gave a very inspiring speech, highlighting the power of the project. Savage mentioned that he speaks at a lot of universities about bullying against those who are GLBTQ but does not get invited to middle schools and high schools. Promoting videos on youtube was a way to reach out to this audience in order to inspire those who are being bullied for these reasons and as a way to educate those who are doing the bullying. He and his husband, Terry Miller, posted the first video and hundreds more followed. Engineers at google even adjusted his youtube account so that he was able to post more videos than first time accounts allowed. Videos have been submitted by famous and not so famous adults, including Ellen Degeneres, Tim Gunn, and even Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He and Miller produced the book for a variety of reasons, but mainly because not everyone who should receive the message has access to a computer, because access to youtube may be blocked (at school, for instance), or because the teen in question wouldn't want his/her parents viewing the videos on his/her internet browser history. I, for one, appreciate that Savage recognizes not everyone has easy access to technology. We see that a lot at our library.
Mr. Savage concluded his talk with a very inspirational story about a young woman who was forced back into the closet, after her parents severely denounced her for saying that she was a lesbian. She watched the videos in secret and wrote to Mr. Savage that the videos gave her hope not only for her but for her parents. It was a very moving and powerful statement from such a young person.