I'm the straight older sister of a gay teenager who came out two years ago. My brother goes back and forth between being my best friend and my kid; our parents don't really have it together, so it's the two of us most of the time. I was harassed in middle school for being smart, antisocial, and not feminine enough, so when he came out, I had this really visceral fear for him. It was irrational; he came out on the eve of his departure for a super-liberal hippy boarding school, so any teasing he'd had was probably in the past, but when you love someone like I love him, feel wildly protective. I still fear for him out in the world, just for him knowing that there are people who hate him without knowing him, people who don't want him to be a full citizen. I'm even afraid of the otherwise very nice young men who might break his heart someday.

So it's reassuring to hear everyone, but especially older gay couples, talk about how awesome life really is, how they found each other and fell in love and now they're in it for the long haul. Through bully, teasing, beatings, and unloving parents (or through loving parents with their own problems spiraling out of control...), they made it. And my heart breaks for all my little brother's analogs out there without a sister or without parents who even try, but when I watch It Gets Better videos and cry, it's not from sadness so much as from the unfamiliar, and therefore painful, feeling of relief.