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‘My message of pride’: A mother’s newspaper ad celebrates her son’s coming out

January 21, 2016 at 11:38 a.m. EST

A Washington state mom celebrated her son’s coming out by placing an ad in a Texas newspaper, more than 2,000 miles away.

It was a message to voters who struck down the Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance late last year. The legislation was intended to protect people in Houston from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The teen’s mother, Joan Wilson, told the Texas Observer she bought the ad in the Houston Chronicle because “I couldn’t think of a better place than Houston, out of the entire country, where they needed to hear my message of pride.”

It read:

The parents of Drake are pleased to announce that their son, has come out. Drake is currently a senior in high school where he is captain of the tennis team ASB vice president and NHS member. He is a church deacon and enjoys film making and baking. And yes, he adores Barbara Streisand.

“My announcement was my way of humanizing the issue,” she told the Texas Observer.

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Drake Wilson, a senior at Snohomish High School in Washington, came out in February 2014, his mother told the Observer.

Joan Wilson said that she subsequently started the Society of Lucky Mothers, a group that supports children in the LGBTQ community.

She wrote on the society’s website that she suspected her son was gay from the time he was a small child.

“By the age of three, Drake still wasn’t very interested in playing with cars or destroying things like most boys his age,” she wrote. He was very interested in art, his aunt’s newest furnishings, and the color pink. He could recognize damask patterns and he wanted to be a flower when he grew up. At 4, when his sister talked of being a tomboy, Drake asked what that meant and then extrapolated that that must mean he was a tom-girl.”

She said that although she always supported him, she didn’t ask him about his sexual orientation until a few years ago.

“The morning of February 14th, I asked Drake if he was gay. He said ‘yes’ and that he has known since about 5th grade. That was devastating to know that he hadn’t felt like he could talk to anyone about it since 5th grade.”

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Later, Drake came out in his own way.

The witty teenager created a lighthearted YouTube video set to Diana Ross’ “I’m Coming Out” and answered questions he thought his friends might want to know: He’s “still a Christian,” people do call him “the male Oprah Winfrey” — and he could be straight “if Beyonce was single. But she ain’t.”

“I would just like to say a big thank-you to my whole family for being an example of how all families should be, and I’m thankful to all the men and women before me who have gotten this world to a place where I can come out at only 16 years old,” he said in the video. “And I am thankful to the world because, although I sometimes get angry that I even have to come out, I’m still grateful that it’s allowing change in a positive direction.”

Joan Wilson told the Texas Observer she is glad her family lives in a state with anti-discrimination laws.

“As a mother,” she said, “I have much trepidation in thinking my son might one day live in a state such as Texas.”

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