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So a few years ago in spring of 2011, I was invited to the White House Conference on Bullying, where the President spoke and the First Lady spoke.

And, you know, there's a large gathering.

There are hundreds of us in the East Room listening to the remarks of the president and the first lady about bullying.

And this was in the wake of September 2010, all those suicides among queer youth and our creation of the It Gets Better Project, Mind and Terries, and everyone who participated, the It Gets Better Project is a

collective creation of all participants, not just us. And I'm sitting there in the Eastern

listening to the president. And speaker after speaker, beginning with the president and the

first lady, kept saying they rose each one and said, this is something that parents, preachers, and teachers need to work on.

The bullying, parents, parents, parents, preachers, teachers.

And parents, particularly parents, parents, parents need to speak up, need to do something about bullying.

And I'm sitting there dying inside, actually sitting next to Al Franken, dying inside and elbowing him in the ribs.

And I keep saying, parents are often the first and worst bullies.

And I, if I'd been a younger man, maybe, if I had still been act up era Dan Savage, I might have jumped up and interrupted the president.

But I waited politely for the

breakout session where I was on a small panel with a, I think, Arnie Duncan.

And I blew up.

And it was like, parents, we have to start talking about the fact that parents are often the

worst and most destructive bullies when it comes to queer kids.

Somebody who's bullied at school because of his race or her religion, they go home to parents

almost invariably of the same race, same religion, who they can turn to for support,

...