Justice

The Amazing Way This Teen Came out

July 5th 2016

A 16-year-old girl made a huge splash with her coming out announcement.

Gina, a 16-year-old who was only identified by her first name, told BuzzFeed News in an interview that she wanted to come out in a "lighthearted and fun way" to her family. This led her to create a sign bearing the words "I'm gay!" in rainbow letters and hold it up as she rode Splash Mountain with her mother. After the ride ended, her mom sent the photo to the rest of their immediate family.

“My dad and brother said they were already 70 percent sure I was gay but my mom had no idea,” Gina told BuzzFeed News. “But I knew they would be super accepting.”

ATTN: reached out to Gina for further comment and will update this story if she responds.

A lot of Twitter users have shown her love and support:

Social Media offers a new venue for people of all ages to come out.

Last summer, YouTube star Shane Dawson famously came out as bisexual in a video posted to his channel. The clip has since been viewed nearly eight million times.

"You know, I've always wished that I was gay, that I was just 100 percent gay, for so many reasons," Dawson said. "Number one, that means I would know who I was. Number two, it would be a lot easier for me to be accepted by people because, you know, I wear wigs and dresses on the internet, and I'm feminine, and all of these things, and it'd be so much easier to just be like, 'Yeah, no, I'm gay,' but I'm not."

Earlier this year, "Girl Meets World" actress Rowan Blanchard came out as queer in a tweet:

More young people are identifying as sexually fluid.

A recent report by trend forecasting agency, the J. Walter Thompson Innovation Group found that that less than half the population of Generation Z (ages 13 to 20) identify as totally heterosexual, and only 65 percent of millennials (ages 21 to 34), meanwhile, identify as totally straight.

"Millennials are quite open when it comes to gender identity, generally, but they haven't been exposed to the range of vocabulary and nuance around this that Gen Z has become accustomed to, especially when it comes to discussions on online platforms like Tumblr," J. Walter Thompson's trendspotting director, Shepherd Laughlin told Broadly.

[H/T BuzzFeed]

Update: This article has been updated on July 5, 2016 at 6:11 p.m. PDT to remove the full name of the California teen at her family's request.

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