12-year-old's friends didn't celebrate after he came out as gay. So a park full of strangers did.

You cannot make a thing normal and accepted if you make it seem better and more celebrated than the norm.

So you must strive to make it seem mundane?

[Quote] When Neville arrived in the park, he initially thought it was an unusually large crowd waiting for the ice cream truck. When he realized he was the guest of honour, he wrapped his mom into a giant hug. "Thank you everybody for this, this is the best day of my life," a grinning Neville told the crowd.

I suspect this reaction was for the mother's benefit.

I hope he can join a gay youth group as soon as possible.

I hope so too, R3. He has a supportive mom, so that's a good thing.

I sincerely hope this isn't that whore poster looking from North!

Well, R5, I am from the north (Canada) but not from North.

And thus begins his life of meeting strangers in the park.

I hope it's all innocent. The mother making a huge public spectacle of this is sketchy. If the kid really took it to heart, then great. He needs to get accepted back by his peers, however.

I certainly knew I was gay at 12 .I wouldnt have been caugfht dead with that ridiculous hair though.

Why must drag queens feel an obligation to perform at every event they attend?

That why they drag up, hon.

Why are we making a public spectacle of a 12 year old child's sexuality? This is totally age inappropriate.

His friends were actually doing the right thing. Not making a big deal of it. What the fuck do you think it's been about all this time?

The mother is an ass - not unlike Jazz Jennings' ridiculous and toxic mother.

Is this child really male?

I wonder if the kid's mother saw Lactatia and Desmond is Amazing's mothers getting so much positive attention from the Drag Queens and Trans and thought "Now how can I get me some of THAT" before coming up with this idea.

I came out at 13 in the mid 1990’s and lost a lot of friends in the process. Which, frankly, feels preferable to my mother talking to the press about it. I would have been mortified.

I can’t wait for this age of narcissism to be over.

So his friends didn't "celebrate"?

So they just shrugged, said "cool." and proceeded to go about their 12-year-old business?

Why is that a problem?

Shocking to see there are people born after 2002 who are gay and not non-binary demisexual dinosexual queer questioning.

[quote]Why is that a problem?

Because r16, then his mother couldn't have her name in the press and sprawled across social media with strangers praising her parenting skills. Please try to keep up.

The headline is misleading. The article states that he lost all his friends after he came out. That was the problem- not that they didn’t celebrate him coming out, rather he didn’t have any friends anymore.

This would’ve been the last thing I wanted as a twelve year old, but I guess if the kid enjoyed it, good for him. Hope he gets some new friends.

Beautiful story.

The kid now understands that there are lots of people who will have his back and support him even when he feels the most alone.

I wish all the gay kids who committed suicide had gotten to experience that.

I don't know that a one time (or yearly) event can give him that. I hope he finds some peers who will support him, not shun him as the assholes have apparently done.

A lot of people didn't read the article. They didn't celibrate him coming out. They celibrated his birthday after he came out and he lost his friends because of it.

He dyed his hair to look like Todoroki. A character from a popular kids show called My Hero Academia.

This child isn't a cock-sucker.

This child is really a girl.

I’m confused. How do you know what you are at 12? This is a freak shown. Wait until 18.

Is Calgary deplorable land? Who knew.

R24 A switch doesn’t go off automatically when you hit 18. You would know that if you were not a troll.

Stupid headline. Makes it sound like he had a coming out party as opposed to a birthday party.

Good for the kid. Lets hope he is able to make it to his 20s without being transed out.

Mom is on her way to raising a conforming, reactionary gay only DL can love.

12 year olds are interested in ice cream trucks?

It would be much more heartwarming if she hadn't run to the press about it.

I'm impressed most DLers have this mother's M.O. And that few soggy sparkle ponies have appeared to lecture us for being stone cold heartless cunts about this heartwarming story of kumbaya community generosity.

[quote] 12 year olds are interested in ice cream trucks?

12 year olds who dye their hair to look like Shields and Yarnell playing Raggedy Ann dolls are.

This plays out like the first episode of a Ryan Murphy horror story.

Were those kids headless?. That kid’s gayness can be seen from space.

The Boy Most Likely To. Jump cut 10 years in the future. He and his ex friends are graduating from college and passing through their hometown.

Thanks for the heartwarming story. I encourage kids to come out as soon as they are comfortable. I wish I had come out earlier in my life. The pain and the suffering was not worth it. I was weak and stupid.

R12 He said he lost a lot of friends and cried because he didn’t have anyone to invite to his birthday.

[quote] His friends were actually doing the right thing. Not making a big deal of it. What the fuck do you think it's been about all this time?

Brother’s children, 12, 16 and 20, had out gay and lesbian from age 11, and, increasingly trans ones. It really isn’t a big deal for people who don’t live in an actively homophobic community. Kids throwing a big ol’ coming out party would be weird. The vast majority are non-committal to supportive and the overtly homophobic kid is shouted down.

But on the upside, there seems to be a smattering of actual children among the supportive adults in the picture, so hopefully he will make friends outside of school.

There was no suggestion of a coming out party. He was shunned after coming out. His approaching birthday was a reminder of the shunning so the mother decided to do something about it.

What is here next party trick to get him into USC or Duke?

R25 Yes. Alberta is Canada's Texas. Full of deplorables, especially in Calgary. Edmonton is slightly better as it's slightly more liberal.

[quote] 12 year olds who dye their hair to look like Shields and Yarnell playing Raggedy Ann dolls are.

Shields and Yarnell??? Are you like 100 years old?

[quote] O'Donnell (his mother) said it was an opportunity to show her son that there's a supportive community waiting for him outside of the schoolyard bullies.

I don't know. It sounds all sweet but what do we know about what really happened. Was he some drama queen in school who never had many friends to begin with having nothing to do with being gay? What bullying? This is THEIR narrative and they are shading it in their way.

I know I am cynical but this is all suspect to me. He seems sweet and rather childish for 12 - maybe that's why he didn't have many friends. Outliers have a different path through adolescence - gay and straight kids. Just not sure how much meddling and attention-ho moms help with these publicity stunts. How is he going to get along in school now that they've essentially called them all bigots?

If he never had any friends, it would be apparent. He's had birthday parties before now, hon.

Looks freakish to me.

R45, how do we know that?

I doubt anyone, even 12 year old were shocked or surprised at his coming out.

That's not the point.

This mother sounds like that awful Jazz Jennings mother.

If this mother truly loved her son— She would pay to have this decorative piece of artwork inscribed on himself.

What makes you guys think he's obsessed with an ice cream truck?

I really don’t believe in kids this young coming out publicly. I don’t think they’re equipped to handle the consequences. Just my opinion.

People never say that shit about heterosexuals. The younger a young person can articulate their identity, the better. How else is stigma supposed to fall away?

The homophobia on this forum is crazy. Fuck y’all.

[Quote] The homophobia on this forum is crazy. Fuck y’all.

DL is a pit of self-loathing.

R56

At least some of these people have to be straights.

Who THE FUCK needs a celebration to be gay???

This is why these entitled little snowflakes won't make it until 18 without offing themselves.

It's all about ME, ME, ME.

Why the fuck didn't he take five seconds to look around and spare a thought for someone else?

R54

[quote] The younger a young person can articulate

Have you heard a 12 year old articulate?

[Quote] Who THE FUCK needs a celebration to be gay???

The celebration was his birthday. Some of you only read the headline but feel entitled to type a bunch of shit.

That's a very sweet thing his mom did, but unless new lockdown orders are put in place where he lives and he has to do school from home, he's going to be in for a couple of rough years in school as I'm sure his peers, if they see that article or hear about it, will give him uneding grief about it. 12 year olds can be vicious and junior high school can be the worst, especially kids who are regarded as "different". And with cyberbullying even if he's in remote learning will be rough as well.

So many deplorables here. Barf.

A 12 year old gay boy really gets them this triggered.

Why do people think it’s ok for 12 year olds to have sex? It must be a West Virginia thing. Nobody in decent circles would be promoting 12 year olds having sex. It’s not normal.

The fact that some of you think it’s normal is astounding. Even for DL

Who's having sex? Sexuality is about more than sex.

Now these perverts are going to try to backtrack.

R63

I knew I was gay when I was 12. I never came out, but now I wish I did and embraced my gay self.

There were boys who had a crush on me but I was too shy and afraid and I regret not asking one especially out. I never had a boyfriend in school and now I feel like I’ve missed out. Especially with all the gay teen shows these days I’m like - that should’ve been me.

[quote] gay teen shows

Twelve is not a teenager. Those teen shows on TV are written and directed by professionals.

This village spectacle was written and directed by a manipulative Mom who wanted to get likes on Facebook.

R67

12 is old enough to know your sexuality. You aren’t outraged when 12 year old straight kids show clear attraction to the opposite sex.

12 year olds are not attracted to anything yet. Let these people be kids and don’t leave them on Tik Tok for 12 hours until they are influenced to death and then use them for likes and attention for yourself.

Let them be children.

R66 I didnt quite know at 12, but certainly a year or two after I figured it out.

I too wish I could of come out way back then, but rough white working class area in the 70's.... it would not of ended well at all. Had a couple of opportunities with some very beautiful boys when I was 15-16 which I wish I could have taken advantage of.... but it wasnt to be. I waited until 18 to come out, although I maybe could of done it a year or two earlier. Who know, it was a different world back then. All I can say is I'm damn glad kids got it better these days - the very idea of gay teen shows back then, nobody would of even thought it possible

R69

[quote]12 year olds are not attracted to anything yet.

This has to be a joke. What alternate reality are you living in?

18 is too old to come out?

R72

Are you suggesting that gay kids should have to wait until they are 18 to come out?

The homophobia is just unreal.

r73

Nevermind. Sorry, didn’t read the previous post.

I had the same thought, R13. Looks like a girl to me.

The mom and adults are creepy. Leave the kids alone!

Puberty usually begins at age 12 for boys. So yes, many boys do know at this age. But it’s different for every child.

I had my first crush - as in, I knew I wanted to kiss them in a way that differed from giving a relative a peck on the cheek - when I was 6 or 7.

My best friend had a BIG cock and a little bush at 12. And his voice had already changed. Polish American. He was a god to me .

This is not about self-knowledge which is a good thing. This is about publicly celebrating a 12 year old child's sexuality. That is inappropriate for a number of reasons.

Leave these kids alone and stop using them as props for your otherwise boring hausfrau life.

R79

It’s clear you are not gay. Get off this forum, hetero conservative purist.

Most gay people are not ok with this. Too creepy.

R80, it's clear you are too interested in the sexuality of children. We kicked you fucks out of the gay movement in the 60s and 70s. We will do it again. No matter what you are wearing or pretending to be.

Making it on the news is just going to make him more of a target from bullies. I predict home schooling is just around the corner.

Why does everyone have to put everything on social media?

R81

You’re trolling. Most gay men do not have a problem with a gay boy who just came out, and was abandoned by friends, celebrating his birthday.

R85 = trans cultist trying to reframe the issue to make it acceptable to be discussing in the public media the sexuality of a child.

Many gay men know all too well about children being groomed and taken advantage of by predators. It is a real testament to the gay movement that gay men (and women) safeguarded gay and straight children when the movement had little power.

I blocked creepy kiddie perv at R80 and can't see R85, freak. Get away from the kids!