SFPD releases It Gets Better video

The San Francisco Police Department last week released an emotional It Gets Better video supporting LGBT youth.

Officials said the visual message makes the SFPD the first and only police department in the country to produce such a video.

In the piece, local law enforcement officials describe the pain and, sometimes, suicidal thoughts they experienced growing up; their coming out process; and the ways their lives have changed for the better.

"I don't think there's a person in this room who didn't tear up a little bit watching this thing. ... I couldn't be prouder," police Chief Greg Suhr said after the video was unveiled at City Hall on Friday, February 10.

Suhr, who's straight, appears in the piece himself and recalls that as "a smallish young man," he was bullied "all the time."

He says it gets better, "and until it does, we here in the San Francisco Police Department are going to stick up for you."

Officer Lenny Broberg, who is gay and serves in the gang unit, said in an interview that when he was in high school, he was ostracized, called names like "faggot," and got into fights.

"There was never somebody I could talk to, because I always thought I was different," Broberg said in the video.

Ingleside Station Officer Broderick Elton, who's transgender, says in his message, "I had times where I didn't want to get out of bed to face the day."

But eventually, Elton, whose eyes tear up in the video, came out. He says that he otherwise "would have missed experiencing the joy and jubilation" of life.

In an interview, Elton said he entered the police department in 2007 as a female. Since then, he's been able to show others what's possible.

He said that some transgender women he met at an LGBT job fair were "floored" by the idea that they could apply to be police officers. He also said that he's had opportunities to reassure youth who are questioning their sexuality that they're okay.

Out lesbian Commander Lea Militello offers a similar message in the video.

"You just forge ahead and you do what you love and it gets better, it just does," says Militello, who recalls that she was "a bit of a tomboy," then corrects herself and says, "Not a bit. A full-fledged tomboy."

The It Gets Better project was launched in the fall of 2010 by gay Seattle writer Dan Savage in the wake of a rash of teenage suicides.

Militello said in an interview that she approached Suhr about making the video when he became chief in April 2011, and his consent was "instantaneous."

Shawn Northcutt produced and edited the video for free, and local musician Lynden Bair developed the musical score. Northcutt, who's gay and also worked on the It Gets Better video for Apple, said he was approached about the project through a mutual friend of Militello's. The SFPD piece took about four to five months to complete.

After watching the video with others at City Hall last week, San Francisco Unified School District board member Hydra Mendoza teared up as she described her gay brother's coming out process.

"I can't imagine what he went through," she said. She cited national statistics showing high rates of LGBT students who are harassed and commit suicide, and teachers who don t intervene.

Officer Albie Esparza, a police department spokesman, indicated in an interview that growing up gay wasn't traumatic for him, and in the video he expresses support for youth. He felt the project was "the least we can do" to show LGBT youth that help is available, and that they can be anything they want to be, he said.

Esparza's had opportunities to offer guidance to his younger brother, who's also gay, and he said his older sister is transgender. He said he grew up "in a conservative, religious family," but it was "always an understanding family."

Mayor Ed Lee, who was among those watching the video last week, said he was proud of the people who appear in it.

"A lot of kids still need to hear the love and embracement we have for them," he said.

As of Wednesday, February 15, the video, which is available at http://www.itgetsbetter.org, had been viewed more than 125,000 times.