As an aside, here is a humorous take on the “it gets worse” concept for bullies: http://youtu.be/sJGkPrUOnbA

Finally, we must not make “it gets better” a fad or the latest celebrity bandwagon, which we’ll all forget about in a few months. These gay suicides have not spiked in the last month, the COVERAGE of them has.

I’m a big believer in animal-assisted therapy and nature therapy for kids with anger issues (obviously not the seriously violent kids who torture animals, but the bullies who use hitting and mean words to get their way). Teach a bully to train a dog and they learn that positive reinforcement and friendship go a lot farther than yelling or hitting. Take a bully on a hike and they learn that they can overcome a challenge just by keeping on going, and that anger just wastes energy they need to move forward. Get a bully around horses and they see 1200 pound animals that are bigger than them and could hurt them, but choose to prefer to make friends with them instead.

I was part of an equine contact program for girls in a residential living facility that dealt with severe emotional issues, and the girl with the worst anger issues benefited most from spending time with the horses. She learned that if she wanted to be liked by “her” horse she had to be calm and gentle. She came into the program with an arm in a cast from punching the wall and with no release date from her living center in sight. She took the program three times and after the third time she contacted her biological mother, forged a relationship with her through kindness, and left the residential treatment center to start a new life with the mother she had never known.

This has been a huge issue in the abstract for a long time, but we’re seeing a very human side to it that was missing in all the politics and grandstanding. People, working together because they simply felt htey had to, have turned that issue around. It’s simple and direct. They tell their stories plainly and let you draw your own conclusions.

This is the very best of social media and viral campaigns no matter how you look at it. Watch how each of the individual stories becomes a bigger narrative almost spontanesously. It does get better – simple and straight up.

Naturally I hope the message itself gets out. But with a campaign this powerful, how can it not? Thank you, Dan Savage and everyone who is part of this.