Appearing Monday on the Ellen
DeGeneres Show, gay 14-year-old Graeme Taylor says knowing
yourself is “beautiful.”
Taylor
attracted nationwide attention when he came to the defense of a
school teacher suspended for booting an anti-gay student from his
classroom.
Speaking to her guest, DeGeneres said
she was amazed at the strength of Taylor's convictions.
“For you to be that confident and to
be openly gay at this age is pretty amazing, and that you're so
comfortable with yourself,” she said.
When Taylor responded, in a very
matter-of-fact tone, “It takes time to get comfortable with
yourself,” DeGeneres quickly interjected, “Yeah, I know.”
“I went through some very tough times
learning to accept myself but once I did I just realized what a
beautiful thing that is.”
Taylor went on to relive his first
coming out experience at age 13.
“I walked into a closet and, without
really thinking about it, as I left the closet I went 'Guys, I'm
gay,'” he said. “I literally came out of the closet.” (The
video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)
DeGeneres also presented Taylor with a
$10,000 scholarship.