John Berry, the highest-ranking openly gay official, says:“God doesn't make junk”

John Berry, the highest-ranking openly gay official in the Obama

administration, says “God doesn't make junk” in his It Gets Better video.

The It Gets Better Project encourages troubled gay teens to hang in

there and not cave in to bullies, because life gets better.

After saying he was fortunate not to be bullied for his sexual

orientation, Berry, the director of the Office of Personnel, adds that he

was afraid of who he was, that God wouldn't love him and of his

parent's rejection.

“Now I know, God does love me. More than I could have ever imagined.

And God made me just the way I am. And God doesn't make junk.”

“My parents, who I was walling out from my own fear, loved me all the

more,” he says in his 2-minute-19-second message.

Berry adds that his father, a Marine sergeant who had once asked his

son to keep his partner at bay, told his dying partner that he loved him

like a son.

“You can be whatever you want,” he adds. “You can love whomever you

want. But only if you first love yourself. Trust me, it's worth it, it gets

better.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)

Other political leaders who have added their voices to the project include

Adamfoxie blog Int.