When speaking at Fairview High School graduation ceremony on Sunday in Boulder, CO, speaker Ted Chalfen immediately cut to the chase.
“I'm going to skip all of the clichés I want to rattle off right now, and get right to the point…I'm gay. Many, if not most, of the students here today know this, and most of them don't really care. That is exactly the reason why I decided I had to give this speech.”
Chalfen then went on to detail the apprehension he felt when he first decided to come out to his peers and teachers, and chronicles the outpouring of support he received as a result. He also congratulates his fellow students and their parents on their open-mindedness, and details precisely how their attitudes will build a better future.
“This generation is never going to accomplish the things I know it to be capable of unless we stop thinking of each other in terms of ‘us' and ‘them'…Like it or not, we're all in this together.”
You can see Chalfen's heartwarming speech AFTER THE JUMP…