MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts talks to Jacob Rudolph, the LGBT teen from New Jersey who came out at a school awards ceremony.
During his acceptance speech for being awarded “class actor,” Jacob stood before 300 classmates to tell them he had “been acting every single day” of his life as “straight Jacob.” You can watch Jacob’s full coming out speech here, and his interview with Roberts below:
Following his speech, Jacob’s classmates gave him a standing ovation, and his father — who helped edit the video before posting it to YouTube — said it took “more guts than anything I’ve ever attempted in my life.”
Filed under: People














Hello
That’s nothing, I came out to 1,500. :)
Actually, he’s come out to over 400,000 if you include the number of views on the youtube video
Congrats and brave work Jacob!
VERY courageous, Jacob! Great job! :-D
this is cool
congrats and i am very proud of u
Good for him. hope it opens the door for others to come out!
great job Jacob! took a lot of guts, very proud of you,
Oh and that’s my home town for 40 years!
Great for you Jacob Rudolph! Class act all the way around!
Good for you. Im Gay. The only people who have “a problem with being gay” is THEY HAVE a problem with fear of being gay themselves.
Good point Jaime
Super proud and supportive of this kid, but I think the media hype he’s receiving is a little much. He was on the 11pm news! And talk shows… I just feel we should be well past the point where a kid coming out is a big deal. It’s always a big deal to the individual, and his speech was good, but it shouldn’t be so shocking as to warrant a media circus.