WASHINGTON — Minnesota Sen. Al Franken has lent his voice to the It Gets Better Project, an effort to support and encourage bullied and harassed LGBT youth.

Franken and a dozen other U.S. Senators joined the more than 20,000 people who have uploaded It Gets Better videos to YouTube. The project was founded by columnist Dan Savage last year after a string of suicides by bullied LGBT youth, including that of Justin Aaberg of Anoka, Minn.

The original goal was to get 100 It Gets Better videos, a spokesman said. Since then, the campaign has gotten videos from several high profile actors, sports teams and politicians, including President. Barack Obama.

“In the adult world, people are really valued for their talents, their uniqueness,” Franken said in the video. “Everything people have been harassed for in high school is the very thing people love about a person.”

Franken said in an interview that he contributed to the video because he supported its message. He said he’s known about the It Gets Better Project because he has a good relation with Savage, who was a frequent guest on Franken’s radio show.

The video happens to be released after New York legalized gay marriage last week. An amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman will be on the ballot in Minnesota in 2012.

The first half of the nearly five minute video is generally light on politics, geared more toward spreading the message of the It Gets Better Project campaign: harassment and bullying will eventually end, and everything will get better with time.

But the video has a political side to it as well — all the speakers are Democrats and some highlighted the vote to repeal the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy last December. Some speakers also endorsed gay marriage, and all those in the video have sponsored a repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that defines marriage as one man and one woman on the federal level. President Obama has stopped enforcing the law.

Obama has frustrated civil rights activists with his unwillingness to endorse same sex marriage. He defended his policies at a press conference Wednesday, saying the issue is one that should be decided on the state level.

“We cannot defend the federal government poking its nose into what states are doing and putting the thumb on the scale against same sex couples,” he said. “What happened in New York last week, I think, was a good thing … They made a decision to recognize civil marriages and I think that’s the way things should work.”

Franken said Congress has helped fulfill the video’s message by repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the military policy that bars homosexuals from serving, last session. In addition to co-sponsoring the DOMA repeal, Franken sponsors legislation that would prohibit discrimination against students based on actual or perceived sexual orientation.

He also said he expects Minnesota to become the first state to vote down the marriage amendment.

“This particular message is so good,” he said. “I think things are just getting better in the country as well.”

Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com.