Chin up, little guy. It gets better.
The photography project “Humans of New York” (HoNY) has been around for most of the aughts, and has made our daily jaunts across Facebook a little more persona, thoughtful, and… well, human. One recent photograph and its accompanying caption, however, captured the collective heart of the Internet.
Its caption reads: “”I’m homosexual and I’m afraid about what my future will be and that people won’t like me.” The above image of a young boy, distraught, eyes reddened from tears, drew words of encouragement and support from many of the art project’s followers.
The heart-breakingly honest and moving post garnered 270,000 shares and 550,000 likes, and the numbers continue to rise. However, one particular reassurance stood out — it had a campaign logo, with a rather furtive signature.
It reads: “Prediction from a grown-up: Your future is going to be amazing. You will surprise yourself with what you’re capable of and the incredible things you go on to do. Find the people who love you and believe in you — there will be lots of them.” It was signed with a single capital H — the signature Hillary Clinton herself uses in social media posts she has written herself.
The comment itself gained 52,000 likes, as well as a thank you from the Humans of New York page.
The viral photo ran into some issues with Facebook, and was taken down the social media platform. HoNY creator Brandon Stanton sincerely wondered if it was a glitch, but has since uploaded it once more, something the rest of us can be thankful for. Some users are positing that someone may have reported it as offensive, but with the level of popularity of the page, that wouldn’t seem to make any sense. Stanton allegedly says that his privileges had been temporarily removed.
The photo above speaks so much about how America is still divided over homosexuality. While majority of Americans and millennials are for equal rights for the LGBT community, the numbers still show a 57% rating for pro-same-sex marriage. It still may take some time to quash homophobia completely in the US.
One way to fight homophobia is to show the lasting scars homophobia can leave, as well as the very real damage it can do to youth. The HoNY photo is important proof that we all need to keep working together until homophobia is a thing of the past.
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