Jacob Rudolph, the Princeton High
School in New Jersey senior who came out during a class awards
ceremony, has said his classmates have been supportive.
In accepting an award for “Class
Actor” in front of 300 of his fellow classmates, Rudolph announced
that he's LGBT.
“I would like to thank everyone for
voting me Class Actor,” Rudolph said. “Sure, I've been in a few
plays and musicals, but more importantly I've been acting every
single day of my life.”
“You see, I've been acting as someone
I'm not. Most of you see me acting every day, you see me acting the
part of “straight Jacob,” but I'm actually an LGBT teen –
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender.”
Rudolph's classmates greeted his
announcement with a standing ovation.
During an appearance on MSNBC, Rudolph
told Thomas Roberts that the response has been mostly supportive.
“I've received countless Facebook
messages from people I've never met before in my life –
internationally even – congratulating me for what I did, saying how
much they respect me and how brave it was for me to do what I did,”
he said. “But I just have to reiterate that it wasn't really for
me at that point, it really was for everybody else in the LGBT
community.”
He added: “My high school has been
nothing but supportive. I can't thank them enough for that.”
(Watch
the segment at MSNBC.)