The New York Times embarked on the project “Coming Out,” which begins Monday, as an effort to better understand this generation’s realities and expectations, and to give teenagers their own voice in this conversation.
The suicide of Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University freshman who jumped from the George Washington Bridge last year after discovering that his roommate had secretly streamed Mr. Clementi’s romantic interlude with another man on the Internet, captured world-wide attention. In the wake of his death, stories of gay youths being bullied and taking their own lives proliferated.
The subsequent outpouring of concern from parents, educators and those who had survived bullying themselves inspired “It Gets Better,” a campaign led by the columnist and author Dan Savage in which thousands of lesbian and gay adults shared their stories to assure all teenagers that society has a place for them.