Thank you, Paulie (UPDATED!)

Unless you've been lately under a rock or just never get on Facebook or turn on the television or have no GLBT supportive friends, you've heard of the It Gets Better project started by Dan Savage (secret boyfriend) and his husband, Terry.

In my mind, this is the single most important message going out to kids today in a medium they can relate to by people who, I hope, they can relate to.

This video grabbed me especially. Posted by a Denver local poet, the delivery is particularly potent.



"Only so much silence can be born until action is all that's left."

It gets better.

"They have to live their WHOLE LIVES as THEMSELVES."

I swear it gets better.

"Live. Just to spite them. Speak bright, bold sparks..."

And better and better.

"Please. Just live."

UPDATED: Paulie, because he's awesome, gave me permission to post the poem in its entirety here.

It Gets Better: Fight Song by Paulie Lipman (Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.)

Rainbows did not kill them
The colors of their noose
were red, white, and blue

Tell me again, why?
Was it their vibrant color
that set bulls to charge?

Maybe the Bible
seldom read, never once grasped
and bereft of Christ

Like we use
god forsaken for emphasis
and not its true meaning

God did not abandon
these 4 or millions before
That, would be us

Those who vowed to shepherd
all lost souls to heaven
condemn them to burn

Who swore better
lives for their children but
drown their color in ashes

Those who inherit
parent’s hate like good silver
spend it into fists

And the rest of us
who bear all other epithets
keep lips sewn silent

But sulfur will find
other ways inside until
spectrums flow out our eyes

Only so much
silence can be born
until action is all that’s left

For you, with hues locked
behind your teeth, remember
it will get better

The priests, parents, and
pundits who demonize you
will soon be punished

They, have to live their
whole lives, as themselves
This is your vengeance

They will all work for you
and you will give them money
but they will pay


This is better than
any fist you could throw back
Live, just to spite them

Speak bright, bold sparks while
their grey ash blends to roadside
and irrelevance

Dance brash and loud, live
love wide as your arms will go
Live, hallelujah

Live joyous, like you
never knew its antonym
You are not alone

Please
just
live