Andrade 1 John Andrade Dr.

Erin Dietel-McLaughlin WR 13300 7 November 2011 It Gets Better: The Use of the Internet for the Aid of LGBT Youth One could say that in the past century, especially in the past ten years, the Earth has gotten much smaller. Beginning with the development of the Internet in the 1990s, the amount of information that is spread across the globe has increased incredibly exponentially. As a result of the Internet, along with the invention of smartphones and social media networks, the average American gets bombarded with information on a daily basis. Many say that this new technology is changing the world. However, it is not so much the technology itself that is revolutionary, but as to how people are taking advantage of it. Within the past year alone, new technology has caused enormous events to occur, the most recently (in)famous being Occupy Wall Street, in which social media connected a large group of people and motivated them to camp out on the streets of lower Manhattan to speak out for the ninety-nine percent of Americans against the wealthiest one percent. Also, because of the Internet extreme social change has occurred, which can be seen through the events of the Arab Spring that began earlier this year. As displayed through these nationwide and worldwide phenomena, there is no doubt that the Internet and the networking that has come with it have made humanity more connected and has changed the world. The demographic of people most affected by this shift towards digital media and the Internet is none other than the young. The millennial generation, being those people born between the years of 1980 and 1999, have essentially grown up with the Internet, and in many

Andrade 2 cases the younger members of this generation do not remember the days of dial-up and the rarity that was a cell phone. This new technology has in a sense shaped their lives, and as a result they are theoretically more informed than previous generations. Technology has not only shaped young peoples lives, but in many cases really helped and, to an extent, saved lives. One specific group of youth that technology has helped to this extent is the young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) people. With the development of the Internet and new technology, adult members of the LGBT community are much more able to reach out to youths that are struggling to find their place and are at risk for dangerous behavior. As a result, certain websites and organizations, such as the It Gets Better Project and the Trevor Project, have been created and have potentially been extremely effective because of Web 2.0 and other technology. While todays LGBT youth still deal with the same issues as their older counterparts once did, because of the Internet and the resulting influx of social networking sites and the ability to upload media, they are as a whole less isolated from the rest of the world and are able to feel more accepted than previous generations. In the past, isolation was a major issue amongst members of the LGBT community, both young and old. After World War II and before the modern gay rights movement, it was extremely rare for gays, lesbians and bisexuals, even less so transgendered people, to come out of the closet to family or friends. Even if a homosexual became very close to a heterosexual acquaintance, it was rare for the former to tell the latter of his or her orientation (Weinberg xiii). There were multiple reasons for many members of the LGBT community keeping to themselves. However, the main reason was the paranoia for which the 1950s were known. During the Second Red Scare of the 1950s, homosexuals were very vulnerable to the communist witch hunts. Republican Congressman Guy George Gabrielson once stated that sexual perverts who have

Andrade 3 influenced our government in recent years are as dangerous as the actual communists (Spencer 356). Another Senator, Kenneth Wherry was once interviewed and made no distinction between a homosexual and a communist (Spencer 356-357). As a result of the times paranoid political state, it would have been extremely dangerous for a homosexual to be open about his or her orientation, especially if he or she were to be holding political office. According to a federal investigation, about 3,500 sex perverts held some form of a federal job in 1950 (Spencer 356). With Senators vowing to get rid of all of the homosexuals involved in the federal government in some way and comparing them to the communists of whom Americans were paranoid at the time, it is no surprise that LGBT people, especially the youth that were growing up during this paranoia, before the modern gay rights movement felt extremely isolated and very rarely were accepted or accepted themselves. Even after the Stonewall riots of 1969 and the beginning of a feeling of change in society regarding its stance on homosexuality, many LGBT youth were still experiencing extreme amounts of isolation. The political climate, while still far from ideal, was much less paranoid than that of the McCarthy era, but the social stigma attached to different sexual orientations and gender identities was still present. For example, people considered experts in youth-related fields in the 1970s and 1980s recognized gay adolescence as a separate category from normal adolescence, to the point where gay youth could have been considered a different species from normal youth (Savin-Williams 49). This sentiment of those with respected opinions in itself was enough for LGBT youth to feel isolated and different from their heterosexual peers. These experts appeared to understand the plight of LGBT youth, but unfortunately the only teens they surveyed to get more information on the topic were in the worst of situations, from family members disowning them to experiencing drug abuse and even coming close to suicide (Savin-

Andrade 4 Williams 53). This skewing of information was not necessarily intentional, as LGBT issues were not well-known at all at the time, and those researching LGBT youth simply had to find where these young people were concentrated, which in many cases were on the streets (Savin-Williams 53). Many closeted LGBT youth were obviously not in this terrible state of living, but because experts made it seem as though all out teens lived a life of drug abuse and prostitution, this demographic of young people felt even more ashamed of themselves and found it very difficult to accept being different. Ironically enough, before the days of the Internet and social media, experts trying to help LGBT youth only made these young people feel more isolated. The LGBT youth of the past experienced extreme feelings of isolation, and struggled during the very confusing period of life known as adolescence; in many cases, this struggle of getting through the teenage years still holds true today. To this day, it is still common for these teens to have nowhere to turn: schools in many cases not take LGBT issues, especially bullying, seriously, many churches consider them to be an abomination, and parents are oftentimes not terribly accepting either. Because of this stigma that society places upon these young people, it was and still is also unfortunately more likely for LGBT youth to turn to self-harm and suicide. In 2007, researchers from the United Kingdom, a nation where LGBT youth face the same issues to a similar extent as in the United States, surveyed one hundred ninety lesbian, gay, and bisexual teenagers (the survey did not include transgendered youth). These researchers discovered that out of this group, nineteen percent had committed acts of self-harm at least once (Scourfield, Roen, McDermott 330). In addition to that substantial number, fifty-three percent of those that were bullied in school had considered self-harm or suicide (Scourfield, Roen, McDermott 330). Obviously, LGBT youth still feel some form of isolation that their older counterparts once did.

Andrade 5 However, this generation has one major thing going for them that previous generations lacked: the Internet. The Internet, while starting out as a small network trying to connect individuals, has ended up becoming LGBT youths biggest asset; it brings these struggling teenagers together and allows them to explore their identities much more so than previous generations of LGBT people who were essentially on their own. LGBT youth have been shown to rely on the Internet more so than their heterosexual peers in order to find an accepting peer group and social support (Suicide Prevention Research Center 24). These young people tend to feel more isolated from the rest of their community, and because in many cases they are still younger teenagers and need to feel accepted, they will go out and search to find another community. And nowadays, because the Internet access is so conveniently located in most cases in said teenagers household, it becomes much less of a challenge to seek out support. While studies of the Internet on the psyche of LGBT youth have not shown any real results yet, it is very possible that with these youths finding some form of support group, virtual or otherwise, can help to bring down levels of isolation and possibly help to prevent suicide (Suicide Prevention Research Center 24). Because LGBT youth are now able to connect to a worldwide network filled with other teens facing similar issues, their isolation level and even suicidal behavior have the potential to decrease dramatically, a hope that previous generations of LGBT people lacked. With the development of the Internet and social media technology, not only are other LGBT youth reaching out to each other for support, but older generations of LGBT people are also becoming much more able to reach out to struggling youth than ever before. As mentioned before, these young people still face issues of bullying and potentially resorting to dangerous, destructive behavior. However, with newer means of communication, the LGBT community and

Andrade 6 even members of the heterosexual world are much more able to try to curb this epidemic of isolation. One example of this reaching out to younger generations is the It Gets Better Project. In September 2010, in response to the number of students taking their lives for being bullied because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, author Dan Savage and his parter Terry Miller made a YouTube video. The purpose of this video was for them to tell their story of being bullied as kids and to tell LGBT youth that they do have a future, telling them that it gets better, hence the name of the project (What is the It Gets Better Project?). Eventually, this YouTube video spread, and now only a year later the It Gets Better Project is a worldwide movement, with over twenty-five thousand videos viewed over forty million times (What is the It Gets Better Project?). This project shows how powerful the Internet truly can be. One video made by two people spread was watched by one person, who shared it with another, who shared it with another, and another, etc., until the project became almost a household name. Anybody with Internet access is able to watch these videos that give hope to young people in the darkest of times. Nobody knows for sure how many lives these videos have saved, but what is certain is that if the LGBT youth of the past had the Internet and had these messages available to them, the general sentiment of isolation would have decreased dramatically, and even if this project existed three years ago, the number of suicidal LGBT teens would not be nearly as high. The It Gets Better Project shows that something as simple as a video can become extremely powerful with the aid of mass communication and the Internet. However, this specific project is only one of many designed to help LGBT youth that has taken advantage of new technology. A second example organization is The Trevor Project. This organizations main component is a twenty-four-hour suicide hotline specifically aimed at LGBT youths contemplating taking their lives (About Trevor...). The organization has existed since 1998, but

Andrade 7 has become much more well-known in recent years because of Web 2.0 media (About Trevor...). Oddly enough, one of the main reasons why the hotline is becoming so much more well-known is through the It Gets Better Project, to which the Trevor Project is a large benefactor (What is the...). Because of this common association between the two organizations, it is fairly common for an It Gets Better video to post the phone number for the suicide hotline. As mentioned before, these videos are viewed millions of times every month, and with people posting the number in their videos, the Trevor hotline is mentioned millions of times throughout the world. Along with the It Gets Better videos, other popular YouTubers such as Michael Buckley (mostly known for his What the Buck?! show) have mentioned the hotline on numerous occasions, thus giving the organization that much more attention. This hotline, once not nearly as well-known, started to receive the attention it needed to be effective through the Internet, and as a result has, along with the It Gets Better Project, greatly reduced the amount of isolation LGBT youth feel and as a result has potentially saved countless lives. Even with the aforementioned organizations that have taken advantage of the Internet to do good, critics may still say that social networking and the web have ended up doing more harm to LGBT teenagers through cyberbullying. These critics are correct in the sense that cyberbullying is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with. A study of 3,767 American middle school students shows that eleven percent were victims of cyberbullying, four percent were cyberbullies, and seven percent were on both ends of the spectrum (Ang and Dion 388). Even though the percentages appear small, when thought of relative to all of the middle and high school kids in the nation, it becomes apparent that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of young people have to deal with this issue. Certain websites such as Formspring, a site where one can ask and publicly post anonymous questions about another, appear to be havens for this type

Andrade 8 of indirect bullying. As a result, these critics are correct in the sense that cyberbullying is an issue for todays teens. However, while it is true that there are areas of the Internet that are risky to interact in, without the websites that have been doing good, there would be no change in the level of isolation and loneliness that todays LGBT youth feel from in the past. Without organizations such as the It Gets Better Project and the Trevor Project having a large influence online, LGBT teens would, like their predecessors, have very few, if any at all, places to turn. Even though in many cases bullying can be extended online, the good in the end outweighs the bad, as even a little bit of hope and positivity for the future is better than none at all. While todays LGBT youth deal with very similar issues of bullying, rejection, and overall isolation that their older counterparts faced as teenagers and young adults, because of the development of the Internet and the resulting social networking sites and ability to upload media, they are much more able to overcome this isolation and feel accepted than previous generations ever were. Unfortunately, it will be a very long time before American society as a whole comes to accept sexual minorities, even if the government passes laws regarding bullying and homophobia and transphobia in general. This idea can be displayed through looking into past examples in history such as the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s for African-Americans; there have been federal laws against racism for decades now, but racial tension is still everpresent. As a result, there is a possibility that LGBT youths general sentiment of isolation may never completely go away. However, organizations that take advantage of mass communication and the digital world have been a major step in reducing this anxiety that these young people have. With this major step comes hope for the future. Now there is the hope that LGBT youth will have their needs met and that maybe they will be in a safe environment wherever they go.

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Works Cited "About Trevor | The Trevor Project." Preventing Suicide Among LGBTQ Youth | The Trevor Project. Web. 14 Nov. 2011.

Ang, Rebecca P., and Dion H. Goh. "Cyberbullying Among Adolescents: The Role of Affective and Cognitive Empathy, and Gender." Child Psychiatry & Human Development 41.4 (2010): 387-97. Print.

Nichols, Jack. The Gay Agenda: Talking Back to Fundamentalists. By George Weinberg, Ph.D. Amherst: Prometheus, 1996. Print.

Savin-Williams, Ritch C. The New Gay Teenager. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2005. Print. Scourfield, Jonathan, Katrina Roen, and Liz McDermott. "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Young People's Experiences of Distress: Resilience, Ambivalence and Self-destructive Behaviour." Health & Social Care in the Community 16.3 (2008): 329-36. Print. Spencer, Colin. Homosexuality in History. London: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1995. Print. Suicide Prevention Resource Center. (2008). Suicide risk and prevention for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. Newton, MA: Education Development Center, Inc. "What Is the It Gets Better Project?" It Gets Better Project | Give Hope to LGBT Youth. Web. 14 Nov. 2011.

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