<p>[WATCH:</a> High school senior comes out as LGBT in front of 300 classmates - NY Daily News](<a href=“http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/best-actor-teen-drops-act-entire-school-article-1.1246988]WATCH:”>WATCH: High school senior comes out as LGBT in front of 300 classmates – New York Daily News)</p>
<p>That brought tears of joy to my eyes. Thank you for sharing it.</p>
<p>Beautiful. Thanks, zoose.</p>
<p>Very moving! And the response was so heartening. Thank you for posting it.</p>
<p>Handsome boy, right? Who wouldn’t want to have him for a son? I would. Maybe fatten him up a little bit . . .</p>
<p>I am not even sure why this should be an issue at this day and age. </p>
<p>I am from Midwest and at my son’s (very large) school there are several kids who are either gay or lesbian. They are very open with everyone about this and went with the same sex friends to school dances. </p>
<p>I did not think that Jodie Foster was that brave either when she came out this year. If she did it years ago, that would have been a different story. But in this day and age, it is so not news.</p>
<p>I think society has become much more accepting of homosexuality in general, as an idea. I think it is still hard for a lot of people to accept that a particular person in their life isn’t what they thought they were-- even if it really doesn’t change anything. It’s still very hard for people to come out to people they know, especially when they’re not even totally sure about how to define their sexuality to themselves. What this kid did took a lot of courage, even in this day and age.</p>
<p>^^^^^this.</p>
<p>It should be a non issue and often is to most people but when it happens in your family or close circle of friends, exactly what you said ^^ it’s hard for many to accept that they are something different than you thought.</p>
<p>I certainly applaud this boy’s courage, but when did “LGBT” become an adjective that could be applied to one person? He’s gay, not all four. Bad enough that he misused the term, but then when the media just picked up on it…jeesh.</p>
<p>MommaJ, I think he’s just saying he’s in that overall category. I get the impression he’s standing up for everyone who identifies with one of those 4 adjectives. </p>
<p>His parents are right to be proud of him. I’m glad for the response.</p>
<p>Lerkin, If you think there are only “several kids who are gay and lesbian” at your kid’s very large high school, that means there are many, many more who are too ashamed, or intimidated to come out…</p>
<p>In my school he’d be so humiliated there would be another suicide within 24 hours. I actually can’t believe he got a good reception at all.</p>
<p>The kid has a lot of courage. I know that high school pretty well, it is in a neighboring town to where I live, and I am heartened that so far he has gotten a good reception. The town that high school is in is big, diverse town, ethnically and otherwise, but it also has some things that make me think it may not always be so easy for him, but I hope his friends and the understanding kids stand up for him. Among other things, the town has several evangelical churches and conservative catholic churches who are not exactly gay friendly, and a friend of mine who taught in the schools there until a couple of years ago said that the town is very different then when we grew up (it was a lot more working class back then, less educated) but that there still was a sizable population who were blue collar who tend to be less tolerant. Even though kids are so much more tolerant now, times have changed so much, it still takes a lot of courage, because there are still so many idiotic stigmas out there and all it takes is a couple of idiots to make someone’s life difficult. Still, this is a positive sign.</p>
<p>MommaJ, I’m not gonna lie, that bugs me too. It’s one thing to say “I’m part of the LGBT community” and another to say I am LGBT. No, I’m the “B” of LGBT. He is the “G” of LGBT. </p>
<p>I went to a large, relatively liberal, Great Lakes high school and my best friend is gay. While it was perfectly acceptable for him to show up to prom with a male date, it was NOT acceptable for him to show up to a banquet for his varsity sport with a male date. Would it have been said explicitly? No, but it would have been made apparent. </p>
<p>It’s so, so sad that anyone needs to make an announcement like this publicly in this day and age. I’m so glad that more are coming out about it though. I wish every person who was queer could be comfortable enough to come out. My best friend came out before I did and my dad had a hard time with it (he thinks of my best friend as a son). Not because my dad is homophobic or anything of the sort, it was just hard for him to process that he was gay. It was always abstract to my dad, who at the time was against marriage equality, and it took actually realizing that his opposition to marriage equality was limiting the rights of his daughter’s BEST FRIEND for him to change his position. I think as more and more come out, tolerance will spread. This video gives me hope. </p>
<p>Or maybe that’s just me being idealistic.</p>
<p>@romanigypsyeyes-</p>
<p>That is why kids like this one come out, to show people that lGBT people are not aliens, not limited to living in San Francisco or NYC, but rather are people they know. I have a lot of friends who fit this category, and they all tell stories of when people got to put a face on someone who is gay, they started realizing that these were people they knew and loved, not strangers and it makes a difference. I had a friend who was transgender (I knew them long before they transitioned), and they talked about doing outreach with a group of senior citizens, and she was touched when this women who was probably 90, grabbed her arm and said “good for you, sweetheart, I have lived long enough, seen enough, that you have to be yourself and if others don’t like it, their loss”. It is one of the reason that those opposed to gays are so upset by things like gay-straight alliances in schools, movies and tv shows that show gay characters and so forth, because as with anything, when you see the reality versus the propaganda, attitudes change. In another generation I suspect large parts of the ‘debate’ over issues like gay marriage will be over, younger people, those now under 40, are very, very different then their elders.</p>
<p>music, I really, really want to believe that this debate will be more or less over in a generation or two, but I’m not convinced. Too much bullying. It seems like my generation is highly polarized- either very tolerant or decidedly intolerant. So sad. To see an entire gym applauding though- THAT gives me hope.</p>
<p>@roman-</p>
<p>Things tend to change fast, and if you look at attitudes of young people, it is amazing the difference. I work around a lot of people younger then myself, and to them, there just isn’t a big deal. Part of this is education, generally the more educated someone is the more tolerant they are, plus younger people also are not as likely to believe the crap far too many in the religious community deal out, the younger generation is far less likely to belong to a church and way, way less likely to let a church tell them how to think (just to give you an idea, more then 50% of Catholics these days are in favor of same sex marriage). There are exceptions, kids who are first generation americans or immigrants themselves tend not to be as open, but even with them from what I know of their attitudes change as they grow up. </p>
<p>Put it this way, the GOP, with their whole emphasis on social conservatism (as someone says, God, guns, being anti gay and anti abortion) has hurt them with young people, fewer then 1 in 3 young people identifies or registers are republican, and polls of the younger generation shows a large majority (something like 70%) think that the GOP’s emphasis on social issues is a turn off for them…so it is changing. </p>
<p>Put it this way, I never thought gays would get equality on marriage in my lifetime and it is changing all so rapidly. In the Bush era we had all these ballot initiatives to ban same sex marriage, now more and more states have legalized it (never thought maryland or maine would do it, they did)…heck, you have guys like Bob Barr and Ken Olsen fighting for same sex marriage rights, and both of them are pretty conservative (Barr has decided he is libertarian, Olsen says it is a civil rights issue based on equal protection). I am sure it isn’t going to be easy, and I suspect it is going to be another case like Loving with same sex marriage where SCOTUS will step in with the recalcitrant states. I have been married a lot of years now, and I never understood how denying someone else the legal right to marriage affected my marriage, my life, if I had problems, it was because we had them…and apparently, young people agree.</p>