Drag performer Courtney Act will be among high profile Australians who have prepared an ‘It Gets Better’ video for the launch of the It Gets Better Australia project.
The official It Gets Better Australia project is set to launch this week in Perth and organisers are now calling out for community members to send in their own video messages of hope for young LGBTI people.
Jamison Parker and Paul Van Lieshout Hunt are the organisers behind the Australian project, to be launched on Friday October 28. The online project will mimic the popular American campaign that hosts videos of hope and support for young LGBTI people. So far, the US campaign has attracted over 25,000 videos of positive messages from community members to high profile people like US President Barack Obama.
The US project, which began in September last year in reaction to a spate of suicides among young same-sex attracted people, has given the official licensing of It Gets Better Australia to Van Lieshout Hunt and Parker.
Jamison Parker, It Gets Better Australia Managing Director said the project was a worldwide phenomenon.
‘The It Gets Better Australia campaign is an official affiliate to the US project,’ he said.
‘…All the information on the website will be relevant to Australia and benefactors of the project will be Australian community groups.’
Nationally recognised drag performer Courtney Act has reportedly prepared one of the videos for the campaign. Parker said the project had attracted a number of high profile Australians to prepare videos ready for the launch but didn’t reveal any other big names.
It Gets Better Australia Executive Director Paul Van Lieshout Hunt said the project was about providing hope to young LGBTI people in Australia.
‘It’s all about hope,’ he said.
‘It’s getting that message out there to an Australian audience which is what we’d really like to see.
‘We just finished writing our whole strategic plan… and our whole mission is about giving that voice of hope and getting kids to hang on…
‘We’ve been looking at doing this for over a year… and it wasn’t until we got the go ahead from the US that we were really able to get the ball rolling on this.’
As well as hosting positive online video messages and providing grants, Hunt said the Australian project would also provide resources and information to help young LGBTI people, on a state-by-state basis.
Send your video in to Australia@itgetsbetter.org. The official launch will be held at Connections Nightclub on Friday October 28 from 10pm. For more information, go to the ‘It Gets Better Australia’ Facebook page.
Benn Dorrington
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