Over the years, several Big Law firms have become more vocal in their support of the LGBTQ community—some have celebrated LGBTQ Pride month by changing their firm logos, others have participated in Pride parades across the country.

Seth Levy has taken note, given that he is not only an LGBT lawyer and partner at Nixon Peabody, but also chairman and CEO of the It Gets Better Project, the nonprofit organization that shares video stories of experiences and messages of hope from the LGBT community.

Seth Levy Seth D. Levy of Nixon Peabody.

“The [legal] profession [and] society have certainly changed. There has been a lot of progress made,” Levy, who is based in Los Angeles, said in an interview Friday.

Levy created the It Gets Better online platform in 2010 amid the growing popularity of a video by author Dan Savage and his partner, Terry Miller, responding to a string of suicides committed by teens who were struggling with coming out or were bullied over their sexual orientation.

As of today, the organization has shared over 60,000 stories of people in the LGBT community. They include a video by attorneys from Nixon Peabody, which shed light on the experiences of LGBTQ legal professionals. (You can watch that video here.)

“Once you are out at work, you are forever coming out,” Levy said. “It is not something that you do once. Every new client, every new lawyer you interact with, every opposing counsel … people don't just know you are gay when you walk into the room, so there is always a need to consider 'do I tell this person, and if so, why'?”

Levy, who grew up in New York and came out as gay in late 1990s—toward the end of his college years—said as a young lawyer, he didn't know any senior LGBTQ attorneys he could look to as role models. Since then, the Big Law community has come a long way, he said, especially in progressive cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, and people in large law firms are working to create a better environment for the LGBTQ community.

And that's an imperative, he added.

“An employer that doesn't allow a LGBTQ person to be who they are and live their authentic selves is not an employer that deserves that employee,” Levy said.

Building on the momentum of the viral videos, the It Gets Better Project has since deployed programs for LGBT youth on six continents, in countries including Chile, Canada, Portugal, Italy and England. In addition to spreading its message of hope, the project also offers a resource center and educational programs to help young LGBT people find helpful services in their community.

“For the LGBTQ community, we don't have the same intergenerational relationship that you see in communities of color or religion [in that], to put it simply, gay kids don't [always] come from gay parents. So, LGBTQ youth are typically born in families, [in which] there isn't anybody like them,” Levy explained.

That is what makes the project important, he said. It creates ”an adult community of those LGBTQ people and their allies who can speak to young people in a way their parents may have, if there was the natural connection through the generations.”