12-year-old Braeden Lange was in a group chatroom with about fifteen friends when he said “enough is enough” to the homophobic jokes kids are so prone to firing at each other like spitballs.
“I just blurted it out because I didn’t want to have to deal with all the stress. I said, ‘There’s nothing wrong with being gay, because I am gay.'”
It was a bold move for the young lacrosse player, and news traveled fast around his school.
Since Braeden’s mom receives her kids’ texts via her iPad, Braeden unwittingly came out to his family also.
Related: All Hell Breaks Loose After Gay Kentucky Teen Comes Out During Basketball Game
“It started dinging, like over and over and over again…it’s texts from his friends and they all say the same thing — ‘are you really gay?'” Braeden’s mom recounted to ESPN.
“I’m embarrassed to say it was like a punch in the gut,” his dad remembers, adding, “there’s a list of questions you’re not supposed to ask and I asked every single one of them.”
After the initial surprise, Braeden’s family fully embraced him. School was a different story, though, where he was regularly bullied.
“One person said ‘do you suck d-word for money?’ I think that was the worst,” Braeden said.
Related: Teen Outed By High School Principal, Silenced From Speaking At Graduation
Through the constant harassment, Braeden withdrew completely, choosing to be alone in his room whenever possible. He’d tell his parents, “I wish I was normal,” and admits to having thoughts of suicide.
A month later, Braeden’s dad found a decade-old profile of Andrew Goldstein, the former professional lacrosse player who made headlines when he came out in 1995, becoming the first American male team-sport professional athlete to be openly gay during his playing career. He shared it with Braeden.
“It really gave me some hope knowing that if he could do it, I could probably do it too,” Braeden remembers.
Braeden’s dad reached out to Goldstein, who is now a post-doctoral researcher at UCLA, via email to see if there was a chance he’d talk with Braeden.
Andrew sent Braeden a video message, telling him, “You’re the bravest kid I’ve ever heard of.” He also sent Braeden the helmet he wore during the period he came out. “I think it belongs with you so you know I stand with you,” Andrew told him.
From that moment on, Braeden went back to being his optimistic 12-year-old self again.
Related: Two Gay Teen Athletes Share High School Prom Pics, Melt Hearts
Their correspondence continued, blossoming into a friendship. Andrew wanted to do more for Braeden and others in similar circumstances.
Andrew reached out to friends in the lacrosse community and organized the first ever Courage Game to support gay youth and promote acceptance on and off the field.
“I felt like almost unstoppable, because I had so many people standing with me, and just making me feel like I’m back to normal,” Braeden told ESPN. “That I still fit in. I’m still the same person.”
Watch below:
Alex Reed
Good for him. I hope he can prosper in life without having to worry about what people think of him anymore.
ted72
Inspiring kid
1EqualityUSA
Thank you for having the courage to be yourself.
Masc Pride
“Courage” has quickly become my least favorite word. You guys ever heard of a thesaurus? Or is this more of a branding thing?
youarekiddingme
@Masc Pride: Fuck you…you self-righteous pig!
Very inspiring story. Braeden was VERY Courageous for coming out on that public forum with 15 other kids and saying no to bullying and then being BRAVE enough to come out on such a public forum.
Thank you to Andrew for having the Courage to coming out at the top of your career as well!
Two very strong young men who are the hope future generations! Bravo. Strength beyond your years Braeden!!
Bauhaus
Braeden may still be a boy, but he’s got the bravery of a man. I’ll bet not one of us on here had the balls to do what he did at that age. I know I didn’t. I was an athlete, played lacrosse and other contact sports – what this boy and Andrew are doing together is good stuff.
Kevin Wotipka
What a courageous kid. At 12, I didn’t even know I was gay. And I certainly didn’t have that kind of courage.
Kevin Wotipka
@Masc Pride: OK. Balls. Cojones. Stones. Gonads. Bollocks. SOME NON-TESTICLE-RELATED SYNONYMS: Chutzpah. Audacity. Brass. Ooh, here’s a good one—GUMPTION.
Nah, I think I’ll stick with “courage”. Because that’s what it is.
Gijane12
Dear Braeden,
My Name is Paul and I live in the United Kingdom and I am 59 Years Old and “GAY”.
In all my years on this old planet I have never come across a young man with such courage of conviction as you have demonstrated already in your young life. I applaud both of your parents for the support they have shown and I am very sure that they love you deeply and unconditionally, Others around you I see have supported you, this is always a good thing but the support from your parents Is I assure you a wound-eras thing never to be taken for granted, as I’m sure you never will.
I see In you, a new generation “Harvey Moon” and I sincerely hope that this is not the last I hear of “Braeden Lange”.
More power to you Braeden and NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, let people get you down with what they say to you, for it is your resilience in handling the situation that proves the better man.
Hello Mum I Hope your still vetting his e-mails and texts “A VERY WELL DONE”
Masc Pride
@youarekiddingme: Do you suck d— for money?
@Kevin Wotipka: Well since they’re synonyms, you could go with any of those options. I think balls is a good one, but a lot of the young queens don’t like to be reminded that they have them, so gumption is probably better and more PC.
1EqualityUSA
someone burn sage, eh?
ingyaom
Braeden rocks (and so does Dr Goldstein).
You’re both inspirations!
Chris
Goldstein himself has continued to do some pretty amazing stuff:
http://www.cancer.ucla.edu/index.aspx?page=645&recordid=590
Verlaine
Wonderful! Braeden is beautiful (but too young!) At first, I thought, “12 is too young to know you’re gay”, but I knew when I was 12 – I just couldn’t tell anyone. The first kid I told lived across the street, and he stopped being a friend after I told him. When I was 16, I told a hot 22-year-old that I liked him, and that was the end of that friendship. It’s never easy. Anybody else try to pick up an adult when you were a teen?
Congratulations to the good Doctor and Braeden, you’re lucky to be living in a time when it’s a lot easier to be yourself.
David Gervais
@Masc Pride:
The reason there are those other words is they all mean something slightly different.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Yeah, yeah, nice worthy important stuff..BUT..who’s the hot masc daddy @00:30 “Glenn” DAMN!what team/sport did he play for?
Okay back to the worthy uplifting shit: there, there kid, there there….erm…it’ll get, um… better?!?(do we still say that in 2015?)
youarekiddingme
@Masc Pride: No I don’t suck d#$% for money…but both your mom and dad do! That’s ok though, with a kid like you, I would do some pretty screwed up things too!