A valedictorian at a Mormon college used their graduation ceremony speech as an opportunity to come out.
Matty Easton attended his graduation ceremony at Brigham Young University in Provo (Utah) and declared he was proud to be gay during an inspirational speech.
Easton, who studied Political Science, shared a video of the speech on YouTube, where it has already racked up over 30,000 views in just a couple of days.
“I stand before my family, friends, and graduating class today to say that I am proud to be a gay son of God,” he said to applause and cheering from the crowd.
“I am not broken. I am loved and important in the plan of our great creator. Each of us are. Four years ago, it would have been impossible for me to imagine that I would come out to my entire college. It is a phenomenal feeling.”
Awesome!
Wow. Maybe you can send him an email and ask him to leave a comment if he becomes a Mormon Missionary anywhere in Europe. You can see if you can request a housecall appointment!
ReplyDeleteWhat is even more incredible is that the BYU school administration, fully controlled by the Latter Day Saints (Mormon) Church, and known as one of the most anti-gay institutions of Higher Learning in the USA, fully approved his speech in advance! According to the Salt Lake City Tribune, "BYU leaders were not surprised by Easton’s speech — every word was approved ahead of time, he said. Easton was worried that BYU might not approve what he wanted to say, but the university gave him the go-ahead with no changes.". I am amazed. Times are changing. BYU, though, still has an "honor code" in place which makes any public display of "homosexual behaviour", even of a non-sexual nature, grounds for expulsion. They need to revise this to be seen as anything less than a hate instutution.
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