It Gets Better to Receive TV Academy Governors Award

The It Gets Better Project will receive the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Governors Award, which recognizes extraordinary use of television, at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards September 15.

Dan Savage and Terry Miller started the project in 2010 in response to a rash of reports of LGBT teens being bullied and harassed, with some young people being driven to suicide. It features online videos with adults assuring teens that life does get better, and it also has led to a book and a television special, which is nominated for a competitive Emmy in the Outstanding Children's Nonfiction, Reality, or Reality-Competition Program category.

"The It Gets Better Project is a great example of strategically, creatively and powerfully utilizing the media to educate and inspire," said Television Academy chairman and CEO Bruce Rosenblum. "This is television moving well beyond the traditional physical set in the viewer's living room to the intimacy of the monitor, laptop, tablet, or mobile device and delivering the ideal mix of inspiration and creativity to affect awareness and, ultimately, change. The academy is proud to celebrate the success the project is already having on LGBT youth and, hopefully, to drive more visibility for this important cause."

More than 50,000 user-created videos, featuring politicians such as President Obama, entertainers, business leaders, and ordinary citizens, have been part of the project to date. They have been viewed over 50 million times.

Savage and Miller will receive the award at the Creative Arts Emmys at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. The winner of the award for the Outstanding Children's Nonfiction, Reality, or Reality-Competition Program will be announced at the same ceremony.