Congressional Leaders Get on Board with "It Gets Better"

Several top New Jersey legislators have thrown their support behind state and national anti-bullying and youth empowerment efforts by releasing their own video message for the “It Gets Better Project.”

The video, produced for National Anti-Bullying Month, includes a bipartisan group of New Jersey Congressional Delegation members, including U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, D-12, telling children to embrace the things that make them different while ensuring them that things do get better.

In a release, Holt said that while it’s not possible to legislate tolerance, it is a responsibility of our legislators to make classrooms a more positive and safe atmosphere for students.

“Through this video, we are adding our voices to a message that is gaining traction across America: that schools should be not only institutions of learning but also places of compassion and respect,” he said in a release.

Holt represents Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury Township, Eatontown, Tinton Falls, Little Silver, Oceanport, Rumson, Fair Haven, Freehold, Holmdel, Middletown, and Manalapan, among other towns.

The video also includes U.S. Sens. Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, and Robert Menendez, D-NJ, as well as Representatives Leonard Lance, R-7, Frank LoBiondo, R-2, Bill Pascrell, D-8, Donald Payne, D-10, Steve Rothman, D-9, Jon Runyan, R-3, and Albio Sires, D-13.

The “It Gets Better” project was created by columnist Dan Savage, who first posted a video on YouTube in September 2010 to inspire hope in young people facing harassment because of their sexual orientation and implore to those facing bullying, or considering the suicide that it does get better. Over the course of the next year, the project inspired more than 25,000 user-created videos, according to the It Gets Better website, that have been viewed more than 40 million times. Among those who have submitted videos are celebrities like Adam Lambert and Ke$ha, companies and corporations like Google and Pixar (Pixar might be responsible for the most affecting video), and elected officials, including President Barack Obama.

Locally, openly gay Red Bank Councilman Ed Zipprich, who has been an advocate for Red Bank area LGBT youth, , and the owners of , Chris Paseka and Jesse Bello-Paseka have contributed a percentage of sales of their cupcakes to the , a beneficiary of It Gets Better that seeks to end suicide among LGBT youth.

Students in New Jersey who have been bullied, whether they are gay, straight, lesbian, or bisexual, can seek help by contacting Garden State Equality’s anti-bullying hotline at 1-877-NJBULLY or by texting NJBULLY to 66746.