A mother has taken out a newspaper ad to announce her teenaged son came out as gay. Not only that, but he absolutely looooves Barbra Streisand.
The ad was published in the “Celebrations” section of last Sunday’s Houston Chronicle.
“The parents of Drake are pleased to announce that their son has come out,” the ad reads. Then it lists several of the high school senior’s many achievements, including that he’s a church deacon, serves as student body vice president at his school, enjoys filmmaking, baking, “and yes, he adores Barbra Streisand.”
Though the family lives in Washington state, Drake’s mother, Joan, told the
Observer that she placed the ad in Houston’s newspaper in response to the repeal of the city’s Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO), which voters struck down last November.
The law would have prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity plus more than a dozen other characteristics had antigay activists not successfully managed to squash it.
“I couldn’t think of a better place than Houston, out of the entire country, where they needed to hear my message of pride,” she said. “My announcement was my way of humanizing the
She continued: “We are blessed to live in a state which has passed anti-discrimination laws. As a mother, I have much trepidation in thinking my son might one day live in a state such as Texas.”
Drake came out in a humorous video on YouTube when he was 16. In it, he said: “As much as the ladies will hate to hear this, I’m gay. And while I’m not proud of this because I don’t like to promote society’s unrealistic and unachievable standards of beauty, I did love to play Barbies with my older sister, Gabrielle.”
He then added he might be straight if “Beyoncé were single.”
The ad in last weekend’s Houston Chronicle touched Houston resident Darryl Morrison.
“I can’t say I’ve ever seen one of these before,” Morrison wrote in an email to the
Observer. “With all the terrible LGBT news out of Houston lately, it was a sliver of hope.”
Posted by tboixy
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