My gay homecoming
I returned to my high school this week to speak about, um, being a big gay. My videographer followed me on the journey and made the above movie. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and figured it would be all warm and fuzzy to share here during the holidays.
I wrote this about the day upon meeting the student who started the GSA:
Tristan said to me that he created the GSA (which he did all on his own!) so that there was a safe place for all kids, gay or straight or transgendered, in the school. But then he said something else. He said he wanted a place that was also fun. And that is what really hit me.
Tristan was one kid who decided to do something. He created a group. He recruited Ms. Lynch and his friends and others. And he had the power to make something and create something and that is how minds are changed. They are changed, and we the gays, we are accepted, at that one-on-one level. Their group will move gay rights and acceptance forward one day at a time. One kid at a time. One poster at a time. One teacher at a time. And one attitude at a time. They’re an empowered group.
And they’re also fun. And at Parsons and at NYC’s dance clubs and at Fab.com headquarters and in San Francisco’s Castro and at parties and movie nights and vacations and dinner parties with my friends there has always existed one huge, giant theme.
Yes, all these things, places, and people are gay, gay, gay. But they’re also fun. Gay people are fun and we have the ability to change minds by making people smile. By creating places, whether a website for gay guys or a GSA for gay students, we foster community and camaraderie.
I am a changed man because of Tuesday afternoon’s trip to Northeast High School in Pasadena MD, a place where I was captain of the tennis team, mimed The B-52′s, and where I was in both the drama club and the closet.
Tuesday I was out at high school. And I felt honored to be surrounded by my peers, yes, 16 years my junior, but still my classmates. Fellow Eagles. Breaking through, coming out, and inspiring students, current and past, with their quest for acceptance, kinship, and above all else, fun.
