Maine joins “It Gets Better” in a big way

Portland’s Rines Auditorium was the place for an event that included a dozen community organizations and three high school gay-straight alliances – all dedicated to reducing hate language and harassment.

In a locally related story, the national site It Gets Better Project now has a substantial archive of videos from GLBT supporters in Maine. When Portland Phoenix reporter Deirdre Fulton searched It Gets Better, she found almost nobody from Maine. So she filmed and uploaded stories from more than a dozen Mainers, then quickly doubled that number. Portland City Councilor Jill Duson and state Rep. Terry Morrison of South Portland joined such national figures as President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contributing to the project.

Syndicated columnist and author Dan Savage started It Gets Better by creating an online video with his partner, hoping to inspire young people who face harassment. Within two months of its launch, the site itgetsbetter.org included more than 5,000 user-created videos and drew 15 million viewers.