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United States News Title: FDNY releases breakthrough 'It Gets Better' video featuring LGBT members . The FDNY is coming out of the closet — and it hopes doing so will save lives. The department has put together a powerful “It Gets Better” video featuring gay, lesbian and transgender firefighters and paramedics discussing their struggles coming out. The emergency workers involved in the project are happy they can live out in the open. “I am the other and I’m OK with that,” gay Firefighter Luke Allen says in the 8-minute video. “I’d rather be the other than the cookie cutter.” Allen is joined by 11 other FDNY members sharing heartfelt, sometimes painful, stories about the challenges they faced coming out to their families, friends and co-workers and the successes they’ve had since. Their message is clear: Suicide, something repeatedly considered by struggling lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teens, should never be an option. The FDNY "It Gets Better" video was directed by Firefighter Brooke Guinan, the department’s only transgender firefighter. Struggling with his sexuality at 16, EMT Lt. Victor Berrios confessed on the video that he contemplated suicide — something he never told anyone before. At the time, he thought being gay meant not having a family or children, something he desperately wanted. “I always wanted to be a dad, but I thought that wasn’t a possibility,” he told the Daily News. “Having a family wasn’t going to happen.” The dire outlook weighed heavily on his teenage years, but he hung on — and everything changed. “You realize that no one gets to define you and that changes everything,” Lt. Berrios said about coming out as gay.New York City Fire Department “You realize that no one gets to define you and that changes everything,” Berrios said. “I snapped. . . I was just done with pretending to be someone and cover up who I really was, when in reality nobody cared.” In June, the Bronx paramedic and his partner marched hand-in-hand at the gay pride parade alongside other FDNY employees. The two are happily engaged and are having “the baby talk,” he said. When he recounted his story on video, he cried, Berrios admitted. The video was directed by Firefighter Brooke Guinan, the department’s only transgender firefighter. “I am the other and I’m OK with that,” gay Firefighter Luke Allen says in the 8-minute video. Guinan hopes the video will encourage struggling LGBT youth to look toward a rosier future. “We want to get the kids to hang on for another day . . . to hold on for another day,” she told The News. “The amount of suicides among LGBT youth is staggering.” Recent youth-risk behavior studies show that gay and lesbian teens are more than twice as likely to commit suicide as their heterosexual classmates. About 25% of transgender teens attempt suicide, studies show. The FDNY video was done in conjunction with the It Gets Better project, a nonprofit group started in 2010 when activist Dan Savage and his partner Terry Miller took to YouTube to voice their concern over LGBT youths committing suicide after facing harassment and bullying in school. “Through this video, they deliver an important message to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth around the world — it absolutely does get better," FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. Their quest to raise awareness and bring hope to these youngsters has generated more than 60,000 user-videos of hopeful messages to LGBT youth that life will get better. Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro hailed his members’ bravery in making the video. “Through this video, they deliver an important message to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth around the world — it absolutely does get better,” Nigro said. Berrios said the FDNY-sponsored video shows a sea change in the department, which has been criticized for not being more diverse. Last year, the department lost a blockbuster $100 million discrimination suit claiming there was an institutional bias against minority applicants. “When you look back (to the 1960s) the department was hosing down gay men at Stonewall,” Berrios said. “To move forward this far and actively recruit people for this video is a major thing and shows the massive steps the department has taken.” Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Bridge at Remagen (#0)
I have to ask, can Amerika fall any farther? Then I get reminded daily. YES! If shitty psycho perverted narcissism is what turns you on Americka is the place to be!
A man walking hand in hand with his man having a talk about having a baby....that does it for me. Muhammad will be here soon to fix things, but I hope Jesus comes first.
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