The Final State of the Union
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Summary:
A look back at Vice President Biden's message to LGBT young people.
On November 18, 2010 Vice President Biden joined thousands of people from around the country in telling LGBT young people that “It Gets Better.” Watch the video here.
The teenage years are a difficult time in anyone’s life. But those years are much harder to endure for young people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender and face bullying and harassment from their own peers as a result. The It Gets Better campaign was created after a spate of bullying-related suicides to tell these young people that life has far more in store for them.
Vice President Biden knows what it’s like to be bullied. “They made fun of me because I stuttered,” he said in his video message. “And it hurt.”
Through the support of his parents, the Vice President said he was able to recognize that “the fact that I stuttered didn’t make me less bright, it didn’t make me less worthy or less of a person.”
He reminded young people that “one day not long from now you’re going to look back on this time in your life, and you’ll be incredibly proud that you’re able to get through it, too.”
“Things do get better,” he said. “You might not be able to see it right now, but it’s there and it’s waiting for you.”
Watch President Obama and other Administration officials tell young people It Gets Better.
Read more about the Obama Administration’s efforts to prevent bullying:
- President Obama convenes the first-ever White House Conference on Bullying Prevention
- The Department of Education warns educators that bullying in schools may violate Federal discrimination laws.
- Secretary of Education Arne Duncan reaffirms the rights of students to form Gay-Straight Alliances and other student groups under the Equal Access Act.
