Hal Duncan's "It Gets Better" Video

[ellenkushner]

Hal Duncan is a friend & colleague, a fellow-author with whom I've had the pleasure of sharing a table (and a certain amount of wine) at conferences from his native Glasgow to the Nantes "Utopiales" Festival in France . . . . Here he joins the voices uplifted to tell teens "It gets better."  I think all teens should see this, not just queer ones - because show me the kid I'll actually like, no matter their sexual orientation, who hasn't needed to hear this:

 

"The world tomorrow belongs to you; be there to take it."

Thank you, Hal.

(I also sent this link to the Welcome to Bordertown authors - to me it has the right  feel.  And, yes, one of them (Annette Curtis Klause) responded:  "Any miserable misfit angy kid needs to hear that. Kids like I was who are made fun of because they look different, speak different, and look at the world through different eyes. Kids like I was who speak like that--use that language--defy the world and are scared as shit of it at the same time. Kids who want to run away to Bordertown and might some time be able to make their own Bordertown right here and now.")

Comments

[lutin.livejournal.com]

Where's yours? :)

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Hal speaks for me. :)

Or, to put it another way - it's in my work, I think. I don't know what I can say staring into a camera that would be of any use. But I can model, in my fiction and in my life, an alternate way of moving through the world that I hope speaks loudly when it must.

[droolfangrrl.livejournal.com]

Aaaaand I can't see it. Could you post the html, in addition to having it embedded, please?

[dramaturgca.livejournal.com]

I think, and I hope Ellen will correct me if I'm wrong, that it's this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpiWXBDgS9k

[droolfangrrl.livejournal.com]

Yup. Thanks.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Glad you all managed to sort that out. Thanks!

And here I thought I was so clever, figuring out (after a certain amount of fumbling & cursing) how to imbed the thing...!

[droolfangrrl.livejournal.com]

Awww. *pat, pats* Sorry, it's probably some cross web browser compatibility thing.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

All kids and many adults, too. For some reason I've been seeing a lot of people facing workplace bullying lately for all sorts of things (including their sexuality). I wish there was a Bordertown for them, too.

[droolfangrrl.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm pretty sure that the literary construct that is Bordertown is for everyone and anyone. As far as there being a "real" place like that.... well that's something that we can work on, eh?

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Definitely!