The Bilerico Project | Daily experiments in LGBTQ

Editor's Note: Guest blogger Charles Robbins, the executive director and CEO of The Trevor Project. The Trevor Project is the leading national organization focused on crisis and suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth.

To those of us who slip into our rainbow-breasted leotards and pink capes to daily work for "truth, justice and the American way" for LGBTQ people, last week was worthy of celebration. While the foiling of Proposition 8 in California has been the center of much of the attention, I'd like to welcome the addition of a hero to our fight for equality. Last week, talk radio commentator Stephanie Miller publicly came out as a lesbian.

You might ask why yet another celebrity figure coming out is worthy of praise, but to thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning people - especially young people - who think they are alone out there, another out public figure is a lifeline to them. Every year at The Trevor Project, we talk to as many as 30,000 young people from every state in the U.S. who are considering ending their lives, and in many cases, their Trevor counselor is the first LGBTQ person or affirming ally they've ever been in contact with. To us, the more high profile people who take the step to come out and be role models for young people, the more lives will be saved.

To put it another way, after coming out on Friday, Stephanie interviewed another recently out celebrity, musician Chely Wright, who had actually attempted suicide because she felt she had no way out as a lesbian woman of faith in country music. Since coming out, Chely has used her platform as a celebrity to let young people in rural parts of the U.S. know that they are not alone. Considering more than two-thirds of the youth that contact The Trevor Project don't live near a city, voices like hers are increasingly relevant, especially as we approach National Suicide Prevention Week (Sept. 5-11).

In order to do something life-changing for an LGBTQ youth, you don't have to be "one of to stand with." Straight allies like Daniel Radcliffe also play important roles in saving lives, just by being public and vocal about equality. The point is, when you are lucky enough to have a voice in the public sphere, you can make a significant impact on the lives of young people. So, as we start another week, and don our capes and spandex to again take up the fight for LGBTQ equality, I say thank you to our newest hero and role model to LGBTQ young people, Stephanie Miller.