Jun 3, 2026 · 38 min · 10 segments
Brian Wenke has spent over a decade as Executive Director of It Gets Better, one of the most recognized LGBTQ+ youth organizations in the world. What started in 2010 as a single video response to a…
Brian WenkeGuestJosephHost
And I just want to be clear, It Gets Better was never about crisis intervention.
There was a moment going back to the early days of the organization where there was a slate of highly public organizations.
deaths from suicide, Seth Walsh, Billy Lucas, and the founders of It Gets Better, they were like, if we had five minutes alone with any of these kids, maybe we could have imparted the wisdom just to get them through to the next day.
And so there really wasn't there really wasn't a way in like how are we going to get in front of young people to deliver this message to show that they are not alone to show that there is a huge community out here with many people that have had shared experiences but found a path to to a better time and so they took to social media and they took to YouTube, which at the time, I jokingly say this, but it was a time when YouTube was known for cat videos, right? And it was the first time that social media in many ways had been leveraged to create some sort of social impact.
And that one video with our founders, Dan Savage and Terry Miller, sharing their personal experiences and asking other people to share theirs led to this incredible viral moment that gave birth to our organization.
And the sentiment in the early days of the organization was all about You are not alone.
Life can get better, and we're going to prove it by sharing these stories that validate that sentiment.
We know that there are tons of people out there that had a rough time coming out, navigating high school.
And I would say the upcoming generations like Z and Alpha don't necessarily know us from that original campaign.
the leadership development activities and the civic engagement opportunities that we are offering young queer people who want to make a difference now through through programs like youth voices which is our ambassador program through change makers which is our grant making initiative for youth-led projects to create more inclusive communities but we've been we've been at it for a while and and we are still When you talk about whether or not it's gotten better, yeah, I would say it has.
But At the same time, there are more young people coming out now than ever before.
And I just want to be clear, It Gets Better was never about crisis intervention.
There was a moment going back to the early days of the organization where there was a slate of highly public organizations.
deaths from suicide, Seth Walsh, Billy Lucas, and the founders of It Gets Better, they were like, if we had five minutes alone with any of these kids, maybe we could have imparted the wisdom just to get them through to the next day.
And so there really wasn't there really wasn't a way in like how are we going to get in front of young people to deliver this message to show that they are not alone to show that there is a huge community out here with many people that have had shared experiences but found a path to to a better time and so they took to social media and they took to YouTube, which at the time, I jokingly say this, but it was a time when YouTube was known for cat videos, right? And it was the first time that social media in many ways had been leveraged to create some sort of social impact.
And that one video with our founders, Dan Savage and Terry Miller, sharing their personal experiences and asking other people to share theirs led to this incredible viral moment that gave birth to our organization.
And the sentiment in the early days of the organization was all about You are not alone.
Life can get better, and we're going to prove it by sharing these stories that validate that sentiment.
We know that there are tons of people out there that had a rough time coming out, navigating high school.
And I would say the upcoming generations like Z and Alpha don't necessarily know us from that original campaign.
the leadership development activities and the civic engagement opportunities that we are offering young queer people who want to make a difference now through through programs like youth voices which is our ambassador program through change makers which is our grant making initiative for youth-led projects to create more inclusive communities but we've been we've been at it for a while and and we are still When you talk about whether or not it's gotten better, yeah, I would say it has.
But At the same time, there are more young people coming out now than ever before.
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