news Canadian Celebrities Tell Gay Youth That “It Gets Better”



A group of prominent Canadian media personalities, artists, businesspeople, and politicians―including Rick Mercer, George Smitherman, Mark Tewksbury, and the cast of MTV’s 1 Girl, 5 Gays―have lent their voices to a Canada-specific “It Gets Better” video. It debuted on Tuesday night at an LGBT Youthline fundraiser and online.

Ever since Dan Savage, reacting to a recent series of widely reported instances of gay youth killing themselves after mistreatment by peers, put out the call, gay adults have posted thousands of YouTube videos in which they describe their improving circumstances during post–high school life. The “It Gets Better” project, as it’s known, has evolved relatively quickly in the month or so since its inception: it now has its own website, and even Barack Obama has contributed to the project, though he isn’t gay. (We have to specify, just so nobody thinks we have inside information.)

The new “It Gets Better” video, embedded above, is a nicely shot, professionally edited, celebrity-endorsed contribution to the project, made specifically for the alienated youth of this country. Organized by reporter and stylist Arren Williams and HGTV personality Tommy Smythe, it’s a heartfelt and very Canadian tribute to the healing power of time.

Rick Mercer, speaking over the phone to Torontoist yesterday afternoon, explained that he’d agreed to be interviewed for the video out of a sense of personal obligation.

“I’ve always been a private person,” he said. “I don’t necessarily like talking about my personal life that much, but I think if you’re in the public eye and you’re gay, you kind of have an obligation to at least be out, to a certain extent, for no other reason than gay kids kill themselves. And that’s why you do it.”

Playwright and director Brad Fraser, who was also interviewed for the video, offered a refinement to the “It Gets Better” message.

“I think we have to let them know that no matter how hard it is right now for them, it’s not going to get easier,” he told Torontoist. “But if they want it to, it can get better, and that requires a lot of work on everybody’s part.”

At the moment, it appears that some of that work is being done on YouTube.