A group of soldiers serving in Afghanistan are lending their voices to the “It Gets Better” project, a viral movement meant to reach out to bullied queer youth.

“It's hard being different when you're young and even when you're old. But once you realize that you have friends that are going to accept you for who you are, and the sooner the accept yourself for who you are, the sooner you'll realize that life gets better,” one female soldier says in the video.

A year ago, these soldiers could have been discharged under the military's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy. The discriminatory law was officially overturned on Sept. 20, 2011. Some 13,000 soldiers were discharged due to their sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation before the law was repealed.

Created by columnist Dan Savage in 2010, the “It Gets Better” project now includes thousands of personal videos from LGBT persons sharing their coming out stories in an effort to combat LGBT youth suicide.

Top photo: Soldiers in Afghanistan participate in the "It Gets Better" project (via YouTube)