Brave Teen Comes Out In Front of School
You may have seen this video by now of a high school senior getting an award and coming out as gay in front of the whole school. The coolest things about it: First, the video was posted by his father, who is fighting for more acceptance. Second, the students cheer wildly for him. Things are changing, folks. Not fast enough — it’s never fast enough. But we are living in remarkable times, witnessing a huge shift in our culture for the better.
abb3w:
January 27th, 2013 at 9:25 am
Anyone know in what state this was?
Dr X:
January 27th, 2013 at 9:29 am
NJ, Parsippany
ellien:
January 27th, 2013 at 9:31 am
@abb3w
It was Parsippany, NJ.
Yay! Jersey! We Rock!
D. C. Sessions:
January 27th, 2013 at 9:48 am
And every time this happens, more people go from thinking of “them” to thinking of “us.”
And every time this happens, more people get a bit closer to coming out themselves.
Change snowballs.
The times, they are a-changin’.
John Pieret:
January 27th, 2013 at 10:23 am
New Jersey is considering a gay marriage law again (Gov. Christie vetoed one last year). I hope the governor and every legislator sees this and maybe has this brave young man into testify.
se habla espol:
January 27th, 2013 at 12:50 pm
When my grandson came out, couple of years ago, he got a similar reception from his high school classmates. We were immensely relieved: we had been afraid that the Utah teens would be listening to the LDS bigotry.
donkensler:
January 27th, 2013 at 12:52 pm
It’s been a pretty amazing 41 years since I was a high-school senior in NJ, or 45 years since I figured out I’m gay. I’m just glad I’ve been around to see it happen.
Karen Locke:
January 27th, 2013 at 1:55 pm
His reception so jazzed me — to be cheered for being who you are is such a wonderful thing,
Dr X:
January 27th, 2013 at 2:44 pm
So what do you all think? Was the positive reception due to the demographics of the student body, Parsipanny is in NYC commuter town, educated, upper middle class, probably low evangelical. Was it his existing reputation within the school? Was it his forthrightness? Was it the dynamics of the setting? Some combination?
Interesting @6 that someone got a similar reception in Utah, and on top of that, six years ago.
abb3w:
January 27th, 2013 at 10:11 pm
Yeah. New Jersey is one of the states where, if Gay Marriage gets put to the popular vote, it seems likely to pass. Still takes a fair bit of courage; there yet remains a sizable hunk of conservative wingnuts, especially in some of the more rural areas.
glodson:
January 28th, 2013 at 10:42 am
This helped brightened my day. Maybe in about 20 years, it won’t take any courage to come out, or even be a need to. Maybe I’m being way too optimistic.