Brian Tuck

Our Decade's Invisible Integration Movement.

The It Gets Better Project, started by Dan Savage has raised so much awareness. Whether we were aware or not, this has been happening for who knows how long, yet recent media attention on the subject have sparked a global response against gay teen bullying and teen suicides.

The messages are inevitably critical and have provoked an overdue outcry for awareness. The support amongst members of LGBTQ communities mobilizing to show solidarity is incredible on so many levels than suicide prevention alone. Numerous celebrities, corporations and government officials have also jumped on the "It Gets Better" train by making their own videos. The more the merrier, I say, there's room for everyone. It's suddenly trendy to be accepting and not homophobic, all aboard, I say!

The videos and their messages, empowering youth that life will get better for them if they can just be strong enough to make it through high school. Does it work? Perhaps more indirectly. The awareness it creates sensitizes people to the issue and it just makes bullying seem all the more wrong and hopefully cuts gay teens some slack. Although, I wonder, what policies and systems can be put into place to help prevent homophobia, proactively educate and intervene appropriately? Maybe it can be better now? Not later, not after high school. Now.

The thing is, some schools will not take action and some parents do not support their children identities . We live in a world that intends to raise heterosexual people and encourages that life is easier in the closet. LGBTQ teenagers simply do not have enough resources or enough environmental familiarity except their favorite celebs rooting for them. This provides hope as well, but we want more.

Is the "It Gets Better" campaign enough? No, absolutely not. Although, it's a fantastic first step. It's gone too far now to fall off the radar. It would be socially irresponsible for school boards not to intervene. The issue is out in the open and the campaign was one of the most successful at raising public awareness that some of us have ever seen in our lifetimes.

It goes beyond right-wing religious opposition concerning the realities of gay love when we are dealing with the safety and wellbeing of a child. To think, this doesn't even ring a bell in some schools like Halton Catholic School Board in Ontario, Canada on Jan 6th, 2011. The school banned a Gay-Straight Alliance group attempting to form in one of their schools.

In response to the "It Gets Better" campaign, could we think of a more awesome initiative for high school students to undertake? Halton Catholic School Board Chair, Alice Anne LeMay, announced the reason for the ban was that "we don't have Nazi groups either". The students have pledged to challenge this, thankfully, teens now stepping up where some parents and teachers lack skills and education. It attests to how some schools and parents simply wish to erase the issue, lest it appear they are encouraging homosexuality, integrating it into a child's learning and reality of everyday school life. It's not acceptable to bully someone because of their race, so why is it ok to not intervene in terms of sexual orientation?

If this campaign was raising a racial issue, school board intervention would not even be in discussion. Have we learned nothing from the 1960's racial integration in schools? We need government intervention on school board policies on teaching children to be accepting mixed straight and gay classes, because we live in a mixed gay and straight society. Acknowledging the identities, safety and realities of LGBTQ members of the student body are indeed: present. This, my friends, is a silent integration movement, hopefully an invisible one no longer.