Tyler, from British Columbia, is 15 and he’s gay. The decision to ‘come out’ was his and he did it recently. He went about it by talking to his family members, one by one. First, he told his sisters, who were supportive of him from the beginning. Then he talked to his mom about it, who was initially shocked but then came around to show support.
Naturally, after the positiveness shown to him by his sisters and mother, he believed his father would be cool with him too. Turns out, he was wrong.
In fact, when Tyler updated his social media profile after coming out, this is what his father had to say through a private message.
Tyler’s dad, we hope you manage to climb out of this deep dark pit of homophobia and accept your son for who he is, instead of saying nonsensical things like “this is worst than death”.
In a follow-up interview with Huffington Post B.C., Tyler commented – ” I’m hoping there’s still the possibility that he could change, even it takes while. Maybe he could accept me, because that’s all I want… I just want him to be there for me.”
Tyler is a total champ. He could have been full of hate. And many of us would have even supported him if he were to choose that path. But he didn’t. That’s the sign of a strong dude.
Lucky for him, tonnes of support poured in from the online community. These are just a couple of tweets out of many he received today. We support you too, Tyler. Stay strong, buddy.