In 1) a public forum the 2) top diplomat representing 3)one global superpower to 4)its historically most complicated and powerful adversary, 5) following an explicit policy, 6) equating LGBT rights with basic human rights, 7) as laid out by his country’s foreign minister, 8)not only affirming rights but establishing it as doctrine and 9) quickly affirmed by a  president who 10) made progress in his first term on lGBT rights like no one else, and went on to 11) make historical reference to LGBT equality in his second inaugural address as well as 12) in addressing the legislature in the state of the union.

13) Ambassador McFaul takes a pretty masterful dig at recent Russian legislators who to limit LGBT rights, as well as everyone’s freedom of expression, well everyone supportive. 14) Using Facebook to send such messages, and it’s quite a message 15) if sent, and then repeated just to be sure everyone possible got that it was not a post about the superbowl. To review this was on  16) perhaps the most populist and accessible platform ever known to man, masterful as 17) one can be quite confident that the other side isn’t likely to dignify answering a personal status update, and 18) would likely be overwhelmed by a firestorm internetedness in support of the status.

But just to top all this off, it’s 19) pegged to the biggest game of the year, 20) in our most brutal and macho sport, and 21) cites the video made by one of the championship teams (minus a few post fact declines) in support of 22) perhaps the most impactful and effective action ever done by or for LGBT people.

Just about any part of this would have been unthinkable  when i was in college 20 or so years ago in the Bay Area where I overlapped with and met McFaul a few times.  That reality is set off even more by the fact that it was clear to most people in the department that it was inevitable that McFaul would serve in this position, his mastery of  cold-war relations and arms control issues so remarkable.

So, Clinton’s efforts on LGBT issues for the Obama administration continues as part of her legacy and she leaves a deep senior bench at the State Department

Diplomacy has entered its 2.0 and will be interesting to see how much the relations among nations is strengthened or potentially unraveled with greater transparency, messy front-line populism, and the return of individual voices. (Ambassador McFaul also shares giddy West Wing-like moments and addresses an influential audience of followers and commenters here and over there without any of the traditional media and functionary filters.). And with a few exceptions, at least the public position of the NFL has changed and it seems to be a priority to keep it changed, an almost unbelievable turn considering how much money is at stake for a relatively small group of extraordinarily privileged owners, and what has been typically considered and stereotyped front line workforce of intellectually challenged alpha  males.

But really, all this is just lead in to the truly remarkable… and worth starting the count over…

It Get’s Better is 1) no marginal effort to save kids lives–as if that wouldn’t be enough.  Nope, 2) Dan Savage quite simply unleashed the most powerful action/movement to ever impact the lot of LGBT people in the United States, and 3) likely the world. Sure, timing and trends in society were great tailwinds, though that takes nothing away from it’s impact.  So, besides offering potentially lifesaving information and hope to young innocent, bullied children, 4) these videos provided a perfect way to engage our allies. Heck 5) the president did one, 6) congress too. 7)tons of sports teams joined the roster led by Gay Mens choruses across the country. 8) Frickin Google, Microsoft, Yahoo’s then CEO, Disney, Lucasfilm, and various branches of the military. When corrected for power points, it’s 9) just about the most powerful viral campaign ever, of any sort, putting Call Me Maybe and Harlem Shake to shame, and just catching up with pop Korean sensation Psy.

That’s just getting started. How about the impact of the 10) millions and millions of views by folks who are not teens at risk, but certainly can recall seeing or being bullies when younger, and how about the 11) tens of thousands of  of discussions that had to happen for thousands to get planned, finished, and  uploaded?  And in most cases i’d guess these were serious discussions that were explicit– about rights and discrimination — and as such offered a 12) teaching moment in homes, clubs, workplaces that clarified positions for allies who might not have focused on the issue before…and hardly a surprise until It Gets Better made discussing the gays not so uncomfortable, something that felts a bunch inappropriate, perhaps, for the workplace, and 13) happily seems to have uncovered the fact that most people care about equality and individual freedom and were for the most part worried that the others couldn’t handle it. They can.

But ultimately, perhaps the biggest impact of It Gets Better is the healing it’s offered all of us. It’s created a venue for us to tell our, at times harrowing stories, an incredible space in which many are able to give voice for the first time to the obstacles and violence they faced usually alone, and in many cases it turns out with such despair that even the huge unbelievable estimates for considering and attempting suicide by LGBT folks seem low, and most importantly it’s allowed us to tell these stories in a context of saving the kids, somewhat protected from having to add the scarlet letter of   “victimhood” on top of the actual trauma of having been one.

And the latest science on healing victims of all kinds of trauma seems to be coming together around how  how essential it is to not just tell our stories as witnesses, but to make some sense of our stories in telling them again with some processing, order and narrative, replacing the serious, and unformed trauma that is not unlike PTSD seen in returning soldiers that experts say account for the higher levels of alcohol, sex, drug addiction, not to mention the repression, self loathing and suicide.

So, anyone to join a nomination of Dan for Nobel Peace Prize?

Seriously.