No matter your connection, if you have felt stirred, touched, upset, angry or affected in any way by the recent suicides of five youth who were targeted for their sexuality, pause tonight at 8 p.m. EST (5 p.m. PST) to remember, respect and reflect. Maybe you’re struggling to find acceptance yourself or have a friend who is bullied at school. Or perhaps you just want to put an end to bullying and believe everyone should be treated with respect, regardless of whom they love.

Tonight’s moment of silence honors Raymond Chase, Tyler Clementi, Seth Walsh, Asher Brown and Billy Lucas. Events are currently being planned across the country to mourn their loss and to take action to stop bullying crimes that lead to suicide.

The event is sponsored by The Trevor Project, a national organization dedicated to crisis intervention and suicide prevention of LGBTQ—lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning—youth. In addition the Make It Better Project will spend the next ten days calling attention to the huge problem of bullying in our nation’s schools. The ultimate goal? To get Congress to pass the Safe Schools and Nondiscrimination Acts.

The Make It Better Project was inspired by Dan Savage’s It Gets Better series on YouTube, which reaches out to LGBTQ teens and lets them know that life improves and things get easier after the teen years. For more information, visit TheTrevorProject.org, MakeItBetterProject.com and the It Gets Better YouTube channel.

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