Brave Teen Comes Out In Front of School

January 27, 2013 by Ed Brayton

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.

httpv://youtu.be/-c4_anB-Vvk

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abb3w

Anyone know in what state this was?
Dr X

NJ, Parsippany
ellien

@abb3w

It was Parsippany, NJ.

Yay! Jersey! We Rock!
D. C. Sessions

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

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

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

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

His reception so jazzed me — to be cheered for being who you are is such a wonderful thing,
Dr X

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

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

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.