Last month Evan Young, 18, above, wanted to tell his graduating class at Twin Peaks Charter Academy High in Longmont, Colorado, that he was gay.
But the student was banned from delivering his graduation speech after he refused to remove the planned disclosure about his sexuality.
He and his father, Don Young, said they weren’t notified until just a few minutes before the ceremony that Evan Young wouldn’t be allowed to speak or be recognised as valedictorian.
But Young had the last laugh. He got to deliver the speech to millions of TV viewers!
After hearing that the school’s principal had Young, Larry Wilmore, host of The Nightly Show, concocted a plan. He flew Young to his New York studio to let Young deliver the speech on live television.
This was the second time Young got to deliver his “coming out” speech. After school attorney Barry Arrington said in the statement that a graduation speech is not the time for a student to “push his personal agenda on a captive audience”, an organisation called Out Boulder held a special gathering where Evan gave the speech he had written as valedictorian.
The student said:
I’m bringing my story forward so that it may serve as an inspiration, not only to other LGBT students, but to any student who is in some way different. I want them to know they should not be ashamed of who they are. They can celebrate their uniqueness, no matter what people in authority tell them.
They can achieve academic success, if they let nothing hold them back. They can become virtuous and compassionate; their differences don’t make them morally inferior. That’s what my school is all about.
Young’s planned speech contained this revelation:
… There is something I would like to reveal to you. You may have already suspected this, but I hope this does not change your opinion of me. I am gay. I’ve been attracted to men for as long as I can remember, and I’ve never had a girlfriend, because I prefer members of my own sex … and that’s my biggest secret of all.I’m gay. I understand this might be offensive to some people, but it’s who I am. And whether you’ve always suspected this or this is a total shock to you – now you know.
The kid worked hard for four years. Straight A’s and everything else. He wasn’t even recognised.