Please watch the video in its entirety before reading my comments. 

I am not ashamed to say that this video brought a few tears to my eye.

Growing up, I too was teased and bullied for years. This drove me into what I was later able to identify as some pretty severe childhood depression. For middle school class assignments I would write gruesome stories where every character died, I had a thirst for the kind of power that would one day allow me exact revenge on the kids that made me so miserable, and I exhibited horribly antisocial behavior including some well justified paranoia.

In spite of the fact that my mom, dad, and sister all talked to my teachers and principle and even though my dad was on the school board, the principle and teachers at Grants Pass Seventh-day Adventist School didn’t stop it. To be honest, when I was thirteen or fourteen I thought about suicide a few times. The only reason I didn’t do it was that I knew that life would get better.

I can only imagine how much worse it would have been if I had been gay. Being told that the only chance of salvation would be to deny who you are and either live a lie or live a life devoid of intimacy, affection, and love, to intrinsically not fit society’s mold, and for the torment to be based on something deep inside of you would be unbearable. I know, without a doubt, that if all that was added to the torment I faced that I would have killed myself.

To my bullied adolescent readers (if there are any) –  You’re life will get better. Odds are that in 10 or 15 years you’ll be making more money than the bullies that make you miserable now.

To my atheist readers – Never give up the fight for equal rights for all of humanity.

To my Christian readers – Next time you want to call homosexuality a “distortion created by the devil” or claim to “love the sinner but hate the sin,” think about this video. If you worship a loving God, then show it by loving your gay neighbor.

Apply your Golden Rule and think about how you would want to be treated if people told you that heterosexual relations where sinful, that opposite sex marriages shouldn’t be allowed, and that straight people shouldn’t be able to have kids. Imagine having society pressure you to deny your natural attraction to the opposite sex and to force yourself into same sex relations. Imagine being teased, tormented, and bullied to the point of suicide as an adolescent because your classmates heard these things about people like you from the adults in their lives.

Next time you want to spew some anti-gay bull shit you could better spend your time reflecting on the life of your savior who dined with prostitutes and sinners. You know, the guy who saved his condemnation for the religious establishment for their callous attitudes.

Your head doesn’t belong up your self righteous ass, but that is where you should shove your bigoted bull shit.

I’m sure I offended a lot of people, but guess what, you’ll live. Don’t gay kids deserve the same?

If you want to check out more videos like this, you can find them at the It Get’s Better Project on YouTube, sponsored by Dan Savage.

I also want to give props to Jen McCreight who came out as bisexual on her blog, Blag Hag.

(Video via Pharyngula)