Then Ellen DeGeneres had her famous coming out moment. I couldn’t believe it – this clever, beautiful, funny, kind woman was on national television announce that she is gay! I could see a lot of myself in her – certainly, she was funny and funny, but she was dressed like me and her hair like me. I couldn’t believe it! For Eren to come out, it meant the world to me, and for decades, many other people who were told we were extraordinary (or bad) and that we should hide who we are.
I agreed to meet Snapper and will never forget to meet her for the first time. She was waiting for me on the balcony of her Portland home. She was wearing Bermuda shorts, a crisp, short-sleeved blue shirt, buttoned all the way to her chin. “She’s here, mom! She’s here!” I asked, standing up. I laughed when I parked because I wasn’t really sure what I was walking.
“Welcome!” Snapper’s mother, Jamie, said she was moving me inside. I looked at Snapper, dabbled in and said, “I’m honored to meet you. I love your clothes – it’s a very dapper!” Snapper smiled big and tried to contain it, offering a quiet “thank you.” Jamie whispered as we walked inside. My mind almost exploded and I needed everything I had to hide my reaction.
We sat down and talked, and Snapper showed us how she came out on the first day of kindergarten. Apparently the teacher asked everyone to introduce themselves and say something about who they were. And the snapper said, “Hello, my name is Snapper and I am gay.”
They were shocked when Snapper told her family this story after school. Not because Snapper was gay, but because Snapper never actually said it loud. Jamie told me: “We never spoke about her being gay, or that she could be straight or gay. I asked her what “gay” means. And the snap is very true about how some people marry a boy, and if she marries someone, they become a girl – that was it. ”
Two years later, we were here and I met this sweet young girl who was firmly identified as gay. Jamie said she would reach out to her friend and find a “strong, amazing gay guy” to talk to the Snapper. “I wanted a snap to meet someone who reflected a particular part of her that she could identify with,” Jamie said. “I also wanted her to realize that the path she was in was carved by the whole community of brave and strong human beings.”
Source: BuzzFeed – LGBTQ – www.buzzfeed.com
