As coming out becomes increasingly commonplace, you really have to go that extra mile to not get lost in all the streamers, confetti, and warbly Diana Ross covers. Maxwell Barrett, an 18-year-old senior at Raritan High School in Hazlet, New Jersey, rose to the occasion well: His senior yearbook photo (which finds him dressed smartly in tuxedo and bow tie) was published alongside the following kicky quote:
“Of course I dress well, I didn’t spend all that time in the closet for nothing.” –Anonymous
He’s quick to point out that most of his friends already knew, and, though he’d never broken the news to his parents, he could tell they suspected. “I had never done sports, or clubs. I was always just an art student,” he tells Huffington Post. “It was more of a confirmation to [my parents] than a coming out story.”
Barrett claims a yearbook supervisor was against running the quote (a slightly tweaked version of a quip he’d found online.) However, Hazlet Township Public School Superintendent Bernard Bragen couldn’t confirm whether that ever happened, telling HuffPo “my understanding is that it was never pulled.”
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As for his motivations? Barrett says he simply “wanted to go out with a bang.”
He certainly managed to come out with a bang.
h/t: Huffington Post
AtticusBennett
well done, buddy 😀
Bauhaus
Out of the mouth of babes. Good on you, Barrett. You’re light years ahead of your peers.
JessPH
Not a very original quote though. I’ve read that line in memes and ecards like a dozen times.
James Lee Hawn
Love the quote
Cam
Typical that a yearbook supervisor was against running it. If they can pretend gays don’t exist, then they don’t have to worry about inconvenient things like civil rights for them.
darian
He “wanted to go out with a bang.” he did a marvelous job of doing just that.
Curty
Yeah it was just a confirmation… I doubt he was in the closet from that yearbook photo but good for him. Nice looking young man too.
Verlaine
Yummy. At the peak age of male beauty, too. THE reason to be gay.
Blazipitous
O ….kay! What should now happen? What are we supposed to do now? Create song and dance and celebrate the fact that he sucks c*ck? Fucking YUCK!!!!
Nobody’s (sex) life is that interesting to me!
Deon Letsoalo
That’s neither funny nor clever. Well, at least you tried!
AtticusBennett
@Blazipitous: stop being upset that he’s Out and you’re not. he came out. he’s happy. you’re closeted, and miserable. congrats.
Blazipitous
Stop capitalizing ‘out’. Stop. using. so. many. periods.
Black Pegasus
If he wasn’t photogenic and white I wonder if we’d be seeing this “non story” published here?
Did I just answer my own question while throwing shade? Why yes, I think I did!
SFHarry
@Black Pegasus: Have you read the other stories here?
AtticusBennett
@Black Pegasus: how about your post a video of yourself then?
can we expect to see it up today? you can talk about your experiences. and we can all learn from them. so, by the end of the day?
mcflyer54
I love that (and how) he did it but I can’t wait for a time when it won’t even be necessary.
Masc Pride
That pic was his “coming out”, no cliche quote necessary. Wurk it, gurrrrrl! lol
blackberry finn
@Black Pegasus:
If you weren’t so pressed, would you have commented?
Why no, I think you wouldn’t!
Joey Boyd
His quote is been a Facebook meme for quite some time. it’s cute and appropriate that far from original. Glad that he is out and happy though.
polarisfashion
Good looking guy 🙂
Bauhaus
@Masc Pride:
Do you always have to fart in the room with the windows and doors closed?
Doughosier
What a beauty! He won’t have any trouble fitting in the gay world.
Black Pegasus
@AtticusBennett: Please shut the fuck up! Nobody asked you to defend the indefensible. Go play freedom fighter to your white privilege on someone else’s quote button. Because you shall be paid dust if you think of pressing mine again!
Masc Pride
@Bauhaus: Only when you’re around, gurrrrrl! 😀
Jim Long
Good for you, I was 19 when I came out to my parents and I’m OK with it, go for it!!!
Raphael
coming out reinforcing the stereotype that gay men always has style……….
jwtraveler
@mcflyer54: I had the same thoughts.
jwtraveler
@JessPH: @Deon Letsoalo: @Black Pegasus: @Raphael: I’ll bet you’re the guys at birthday parties who like to go around popping all the balloons.
Saint Law
@jwtraveler: Like you ever get invited to birthday parties.
Saint Law
@AtticusBennett: “How about you post a video of yourself then?”
Atticus Bennett’s one post.
jwtraveler
@Saint Law: LOL
Jacob23
There’s less to this story than you would think. I checked this guy out on twitter. He was very obviously out before the yearbook.
You wouldn’t know it from that totally winning yearbook pic, but he’s a flamer. Bleaches his hair, refers to himself as a housewife, tweets about OITNB and not about shows watched by males, has a bunch of girl friends and few or no male buddies, etc, etc. Another gay youth with great potential saddled with gender issues because of societal homophobia and a gay culture hijacked by transgenderism. Anyway, I don’t think that yearbook quote informed anyone of anything they didn’t already know, so quashing it didn’t really prevent him from coming out.
GayEGO
@Blazipitous: You don’t know what he likes to do sexually, your assumption that he likes to suck it just shows that if you want to open your mouth, you should study about gays so you don’t sound so out of touch.
GayEGO
What a great comment! Good for Maxwell Barrett!
AtticusBennett
@Black Pegasus: i talk about white privilege on my own blog rather often. and many LGBT issues. the only thing stopping you from doing the same, and representing what you want people to see, is YOU.
AtticusBennett
@Jacob23: Oh, Jay. Still upset that a happy dude is Happily Out, while you’re still a miserable closeted troll who wishes he wasn’t gay.
AtticusBennett
@Raphael: you’re more than free to post a video and pic of yourself so you can proudly and openly represent Uncultured Gay Men Who Don’t Have Style
NoelG
@Blazipitous: Stop. Being. A. Judgmental. Prick.
Dakotahgeo
I’m very proud of this young man! He chose a very cheeky way of announcing to the world who he is and that is a major accomplishment. At least he isn’t hiding or ashamed of who he is! Another gaggle of queens are posting in anger and jealousy here, I see.
Pastor Dak!
NoCagada
@Blazipitous: Are you HAVING A BAD PERIOD?!?
Stache99
@Jacob23: Damn your one miserable closeted bitch.
Stache99
@AtticusBennett: Ha. I see that I just repeated what you just said.
Jacob23
Well, you’re both wrong. I am 100% out. I just don’t go around calling myself a housewife and spending all my time running away from straight guys and hanging out with girls. That doesn’t make me closeted. It makes me a normal gay male.
As for being miserable, Stache99, I’d call a middle age guy, alone in San Francisco, who hooks up with gay and bi young adults without telling them that he has HIV to be a pretty miserable old dude. Not to mention evil. You could be a friend and a mentor to young gay people, something positive in this world, but instead you use them for sexual pleasure and then it’s on to the next body. I see that you read and commented on the Queerty post about a porno actor who died of AIDS-related disease, so you know that HIV continues to kill. 7,000 gay and bi people each year. But you keep doing what you do anyway. You are soooo lucky there’s no hell.
Adrian Michael Ornelas
Hate that quote
Stache99
@Jacob23: Fuck off troll. You don’t know anything about me including where I live.
Sorry but I’m not some batshit crazy closet case like yourself so none of that applies to me. No one here believes you’ve got any friends other then your imaginary ones. Your way to bitter and self hating. That’s a true hell and your living it for realz..
jwtraveler
@Jacob23: Seems like you’ve got some issues. Just wondering: who put you in charge of deciding what’s the right way to be gay?
averageguy40
You guys are so mean!!!!!
Jacob23
@Stache99: lol! I’d invite you to hang out w/ me and my friends, all of whom are out gay and out bi, but you’d try to hit on them and I won’t subject them to a biohazard. BTW, it’s “you’re” not “your.” For realz!
JWTraveler, if I were in charge of the right way to be gay, I wouldn’t be chatting with you and the sociopath Stache99 in the comments section on Queerty. I’d be issuing infallible gay Papal decrees.
stevenbrice779
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Raphael
@AtticusBennett: My sense of style irrelevant. I’m gay because I’m attracted to men. Have sense of style and listen to lady gaga do not define me as gay.
AtticusBennett
@Raphael: no. you’re defined by a fear that people will define you as gay, you’re defined by living each day hoping people don’t think you’re “one of those gays”.
how you currently feel about being gay is defined by the opinions of anti-gay people. congrats. that’s stupid.
you’re more than free to post photos and videos of yourself and show the world that gay men can be style-free, uncultured and basic.