It Gets Better by Dan Savage Page B

Jehovah’s Witnesses. My parents are still devout followers. I know what it’s like to live in that Witness bubble, and I’ll bet there are a few gay kids reading this who are Jehovah’s Witnesses, too. This story is for you.
    When I was eight years old, I remember going to the Kingdom Hall and sitting down and opening up this book called You Can Live Forever on a Paradise Earth ; you’ve probably heard of it. Turning through the pages, I stopped at one page that’s burned into my mind to this day. It featured a collage of pictures depicting the horrible things in our world that God needs to destroy. There was a picture of an old lady getting her purse snatched, and one of a starving kid in Africa, and another of a junkie shooting up with heroin, and one of some guy who was shot in the head. All the images were very graphic and very scary. But right in the middle was a big picture of two guys dancing at a disco. Two guys embracing and dancing with one another in a disco. When I saw it, I remember thinking, Oh my God, that’s me. And then I thought, What if anybody finds out? What if they already know? What if they already know that I’m a big queer?
    I kept that a secret for a long time; I had to. You might have to, too. Putting up with everybody else’s bullshit is hard. Sometimes you have to put up with it for a long time. But the trick is not to give up until you get what you want.
    Those kids who committed suicide had something to offer the world. Something special, something grand. They were unique and they had something to give. And they forfeited it; they let it go. They gave up too early before getting what they wanted out of life. I get it. I tried to commit suicide. I understand what they felt when they did it. Sometimes it feels like you just can’t handle it anymore. But I am going to share a secret with you. I am going to tell you what helped me handle those feelings.
    I love to dance. I love dancing, and I love teaching dance. I love ballet. And it’s something I’ve done my entire life. When everything else is going wrong in my life I turn to that. I turn to the one thing that I love most. That is my recommendation to you: Whenever you get to that point where you feel you can’t go on anymore, just remember that one thing that you love in the world more than anything else, and cling to it. Doesn’t matter what it is. Whether it’s watching television or listening to music, or putting on makeup, or singing, or doing karaoke, or whatever it is you love. Do it. Do the hell out of it, and try to remember that the bad times don’t last forever. The good times don’t last forever either, but that’s okay.
    And if you’re one of those queer Jehovah’s Witness kids out there, I am here for you. I know what it’s like. But I guarantee things do get better.
    Philip Deal is an internationally renowned classical and contemporary dancer. He is an award-winning choreographer and teacher and runs his own ballet instructional website and blog, www.philipdeal.com .

    by Alison Bechdel
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    I drew this cartoon a long time ago, when I was in my thirties. But things had already gotten a lot better by then—I made it through the excruciating years of high school. I went on to make out with many delightful women, and dress like Fred Astaire when I felt like it. I did not take up boxing, but I did get my black belt in karate. Take that, Sylvester Stallone!

SOMETHING SPECIAL
    by Sia Furler
    NEW YORK, NY
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    I grew up around wacky artists and knew from very early on that there was something special about me. I didn’t really know what it was then, but it turns out it’s a number of things. And one of them is that I was a queer-lord. Now I call myself a gay-lord, and art fag, a lezzie, a dyke, straight . . . all sorts of things because, the truth is, labels really shouldn’t matter and