Apple employees join It Gets Better Project

Warning: You WILL cry

So far my Friday morning is going as usual. I had my cereal, my cup of coffee, and I sobbed uncontrollably for ten minutes. All because I happened to stumble upon a tear-jerking video Apple employees produced. 

Apple is the latest high-profile organization to join the It Gets Better Project, and to show its support, the company produced a six-minute video in which gay, lesbian, and transgender Apple employees discuss their own struggles to deal with taunting and bullying in high school. In just six minutes, some 15+ unidentified Apple employees discuss depression, bullying, fears of being rejected by their parents, and even brushes with suicide.

“I found a bottle of sleeping pills and took them,” recounts one employee. “All of them. Just a few minutes before I lost consciousness, I had a fleeting moment where I thought, ‘If it does get better, and I’m gone, then I’ve really screwed up.’”

The video ends on an uplifting note as all of the employees featured in the video reassure those watching that the bullying and taunting don’t last forever, and at some point life will get better. You WILL cry as Apple employees discuss connecting with new friends, finding activities you enjoy, and finding someone to share your life with.

Apple isn’t the first major tech company to join the It Gets Better Project. Google employees and Facebook employees made similar videos to show their support for the project, as have major celebrities and other noteworthy figures like Stephen Colbert, Janet Jackson, Ellen Degeneres, MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts, Senator Sherrod Brown, and Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission.

Apple, as many know, is a progressive company that extends the same rights to same-sex couples as it does to heterosexual couples. COO Tim Cook, who has stepped in to lead the company in Steve Jobs’ absence, took the number one spot in Out Magazine’s Power 50, a list of the 50 most powerful LGBT individuals in the world. Others named in the 2011 Power 50 include Ellen Degeneres, Barney Frank, Suze Orman, and of course, Dan Savage, the creator of the It Gets Better Project.