If you haven’t read this great story posted on the National Post yet about a high school jock who came out to his team, you really do need to read it. It’s a great little piece about how kids, for all their faults, can find it in their hearts to accept kids who are different as one of their own. Considering how shitty it is for most kids who come out in high school, it’s nice to see that there are still good people out there.
His loneliness was immense. Then, in Grade 11, he met a boy online named Brock, from Toronto. They hit it off.
This relationship gave him courage, first, to set up a Facebook page. “I’d never joined Facebook because I didn’t want to lie.”
AdvertisementAnd then, when hockey season was over and just before softball season began, he decided it was time.
He changed his Facebook status to say he was “in a relationship.” He also posted a picture of himself with Brock.
And then he waited.
“None of us slept,” dad Randy recalls. “There were a lot of tears.”
Says Julie, “We hoped for the best and prepared for the worst.”
By the next morning, there had been no reaction to his status change, so Scott went to school wondering if anyone had noticed, or if he’d been blacklisted. Friday and Saturday came and went.
Then, on Sunday evening, one of Scott’s best friends from hockey sent him a private message on Facebook: “What you did man, it takes a lot of courage and I’m proud of you. And I’ve been talking to a lot of people and they all say the same thing.”
His inbox filled up with messages from teammates and classmates, every last one expressing respect and support.
One teammate wrote, “If I was in your shoes, I wouldn’t have had the balls to do that.”
Yes, kids might be dumb, and they might use words that are offensive, but that doesn’t automatically mean that they’re homophobic. Dumb, yes, but not homophobic. Part of coming out is having the patience to wait for people to learn and catch up. For some, it might take minutes. Or hours. It could even takes days, weeks, months or years, but eventually people will stop being idiots. Until then, all you can do is continue to be yourself.
Why you can trust Xtra
