San Francisco Giants to make an "It Gets Better" video

From the San Francisco Weekly:

The San Francisco Giants told SF Weekly today that the team will make an iconic "It Gets Better" video to encourage LGBT youth across the nation. The Giants will be the first professional sports team to join the spirited campaign aimed at curbing LGBT bullying and teen suicides.

According to Staci Slaughter, spokeswoman for the Giants, the team was already considering creating a video even before the change.org petition circulated last week, which requested that the Giants be the first sports team to join the campaign. More than 6,500 people have signed the petition. The It Gets Better Project started in 2010 after a slew of LGBT suicides across the nation. Since then, thousands of ordinary people, celebrities, and politicians have made videos.

"Details of the video are still being worked out so I can't provide you with specifics," Slaughter told SF Weekly in an e-mail today. "But we are confirmed to produce and post a video."

Slaughter said the team was planning to make a video for its LGBT night in August, yet with the recent publicity surrounding the petition, the Giants decided to produce the video sooner than later.

Sean Chapin's video promoting his petition for the Giants to participate in the project

Sean Chapin, a Giants fan, started the petition after Atlanta Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell last month accosted some Giants fans at ATT&T Park, asking them if they were "homos." He then took a baseball bat and simulated gay sex in front of the men and their young daughters.

Although McDowell apologized to the group of men, the Braves suspended the coach. He is also being forced to take sensitivity training. Although, coincidentally, media outlets are reporting that the coach is back to work today after delivering another apology to the men on Friday.

But Chapin says he saw this as an opportunity for the Giants to take a "game-changing stand."

"Professional sports is one of the few remaining pockets of strong homophobia in our country," the petition states. "That's why I am calling on the San Francisco Giants and their players to produce a video for the It Gets Better Project. Should the team make a video to tell our LGBT youth that it does get better, the Giants may catalyze a watershed moment in professional sports."

Go Giants!