Newsmakers of the Year

Dan Savage and Joel Burns

While the nation reeled from multiple reports of LGBT youth committing suicide, Dan Savage (pictured left) created what will certainly be remembered as a groundbreaking online social action campaign: the It Gets Better Project, a series of countless YouTube videos created by ordinary citizens and celebrities alike. One of the most moving was incidental — a televised speech by Ft. Worth city councilman Joel Burns (right), who at a meeting recounted his own traumatized youth while offering hope to those who are currently being bullied. “You will get out of that high school, and you will never have to deal with those jerks again if you don’t want to,” he said, choking back tears. “You will find and you will make new friends who will understand you. And life will get so, so, so much better.”