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Jacob Rudolph, a high school senior from in Parsippany, N.J., stood before 300 classmates on Friday night during his senior class awards ceremony to accept the honor of Class Actor.
But Jacob’s acceptance speech revealed that his acting went deeper than a few school plays.
“I’ve been acting every single day of my life. You see, I’ve been acting as someone I’m not,” announced Jacob.
“Most of you see me every day. You see me acting the part of ‘straight’ Jacob, when I am in fact LGBT. Unlike millions of other LGBT teens who have had to act every day to avoid verbal harassment and physical violence, I’m not going to do it anymore. It’s time to end the hate in our society and accept the people for who they are regardless of their sex, race, orientation, or whatever else may be holding back love and friendship.”
As you’ll see in the video, Jacob’s coming out was met with a standing ovation. Watch:
P.S. This video was posted to You Tube by Jonathan Rudolph, an obviously proud and supportive father.
Filed under: People
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Jodie Foster has started a trend.
Wow!! Yes good for you!! Everybody should watch this clip!!
with education comes tolerance and acceptance, there are still hate mongers out there…BUT you know what??? Fuck em! I am Proud to say I have LBGT Friends and Family, Being a Visible minority I can understand the hate and hurtful comments that get thrusted at them. Good For Jacob!! Hope More Find the courage to come out and say Hi to us who wont hate!
Amazing young man. My best wishes, and God Bless.
Awesome.
Jacob, you are the man!
It didn’t start with Jodie Foster. Not by a long shot. Jodie waited until there was a lot of support out there for us. Give the credit to those who lived their true selves when we weren’t accepted as easily as we are today. And today IS easier than even 15 years ago when I decided to stop living my lie. I LOVE living during this time and watching the tides turn.
congrates on ur new found freedom..
The day will come when it doesn’t matter – peeps are peeps
Brave young man! It’s great to see the support he received from his classmates.
I really, really believe that if more people who are visible took this stance, there wouldn’t be any backlash and they would get all the support in the world, while giving every other scared young person the strength to know that they will survive and thrive.
Even in this time of more acceptance, that takes a lot of courage. I applaud him and I sincerely hope he goes on to do great things with his life.
beautiful speech
way to go young man!!! And good for you pops for supporting him!!
I am always very happy to see young people come out and live their lives as they really are I lived a lie for so many years and it truly is a very liberating experience to finally stand up and say this is who I am and live your life as that person and not hide anymore. Way to go Jacob.
This may my transgender(ftm) daughter will be graduating from a all girls Catholic hs. I can’t wait. I am so proud of what my dear child has accomplished thus far with such adversity. I love this kind of story.
it just sucks when other people do it for you. let a person grow into who they are to become and done rush them and dont make fun of them. everybody makes mistakes and nobody is perfect, but we ALL ARE HUMAN ,and deserve the common decency of living our lives the way we choose.
That is what one’s life is when you are not out…an act. Even though you may be comfortable with who you are, you are still living a lie,and at some point you will need to stop that act. That’s how it was for me.
The next generation will put us in a better evolutionary state, this is what got Obama re-elected, the intelligence of this generation.
Great man
Brave kid.