When Toby came out of the closet, I thought it was one of the bravest things I’d ever seen. Honest to god, it takes guts to just stand up and say who you are in a world that keeps trying to cram everyone into boxes with all the labels mixed up. Everybody always says, “Just be yourself,” but then they freak out when you really are. Toby did it anyway, owning every word and every truth, even though he knew it might mean things would get harder.
What still blows my mind is how his parents reacted. Instead of listening—listening the way parents are supposed to—they lashed out at him with the faggot slur that shouldn’t even exist in anyone’s vocabulary, let alone in your own family’s house. I can’t even write the things they called him, but hearing how they threw the worst, most hateful slur a
