"It Get's Better" Prompt

When I use the word "powerful," I'm talking about impact upon society and the greater the chance the subject has to influence perceptions. It feels a bit morbid and insensitive to compare or rate someone's "Coming Out" video with another's, but I'm simply pointing out which videos forced a stronger impact and their reasons. So, onto the question. Which videos from It Gets Better were more powerful and why?

I watched a few, as the text asked, and thought to myself what merits these videos had, how they were made, who they were talking to and how personnel it was to them. Watching the president talk about LGBT was a bit exciting at first, but it started to feel like a safe ramble, a little bit coordinated and within check of political morals instead of passionate and empathetic. The next video I watched was a video created specifically for the site, created by a boy named Jamie. This one was shorter than the presidential address and although directly affected the person speaking, was cluttered and uncoordinated. It would of been forgettable if I hadn't seen the related videos of his suicide in the following weeks. The next one I saw was a soldier in Germany who was coming out to his dad in the states. By this point, it was the strongest contender because the confrontation was real and active in the video. There was a narrative, as chapter eight describes, that had a beginning, middle, and end. Despite the happy ending for everyone, I didn't feel like this would spur up people as much as the last video I watched did.

A man named Joel talked in his city hall about the recent suicides of bullied children and his struggles of being different from the norms of school. His was the longest video, but the most real and tangible. Not only was the person presenting the issue a sufferer himself, but he showed images of real children who recently committed suicide and how all of their deaths were directly related to LGBT harassment. Joel himself had come close to death, something that nearly halted his speech when he approached talking about it, and made the grim reality more commonplace than it looked before. I'd have to say that this was the most powerful narrative, telling a story that afflicts the audience, provides characters that many can empathize with, and delivers a morale that completes the narrative and makes it accessible to others who may not be interested.