Obama's Anti-Bullying Message: Symbolic, But He Could Do More

Obama released an anti-bullying video on Thursday in order to encourage efforts in the "It Gets Better" project, a campaign aimed at supporting gay youth.

"We've got to dispel this myth that bullying is just a normal rite of passage, that it's some inevitable part of growing up. It's not," Obama said.

However, Dan Savage, founder of the "It Gets Better" project, tells CNN that the White House isn't doing enough to stop bullying. Savage says that Obama's message on anti-bullying is "symbolic." However, he adds that the president "has the power to do more."

"The administration does say all the right things, but we don't see the action to back up these words," Dan Savage said. "We finally have a reckoning about the hate rhetoric that sloshes around the culture directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender adults and children."

While recognizing the significance of the president's message, Savage believes the Obama administration should stop appealing court rulings against the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, in which homosexual members of the military cannot be open about their sexual orientation.

However, Savage adds of the message, "Letting them know there is nothing wrong with them, that there is something wrong with the bulliers, is highly powerful."