Houston voters recently shot down an ambitious piece of equal rights legislation, HERO, which would have prohibited discrimination of gender identity, sexual orientation and 13 other characteristics. In response, one mother in Washington state placed a surprising ad in the "Celebrations" section of Houston Chronicle on Sunday.
The mother is Joan Wilson, founder of The Society of Lucky Mothers, which celebrates LGBT children. The ad congratulates her son—who is 15 years old—for coming out.
Image courtesy of Darryl Morrison, creative operations manager for Getty Images in Houston, who sent the ad to the Texas Observer after his husband saw it.
"My announcement was my way of humanizing the issue," Wilson tells the Texas Observer, adding that she feels "much trepidation in thinking my son might one day live in a state such as Texas."
When you think about it, this a totally mom thing to do. That it's also a kindhearted middle finger to homophobia is a huge bonus.
If you're worried that Joan's decision to use her son's photo and name—Drake, who is student body vice president at his high school—puts him at risk, Drake already posted a coming-out video on YouTube (see below), which is warm, funny and packed with pop culture references ... so he's probably not upset about it.
The considerable distance between Washington and Houston must be a comfort, too. And given that his decision to come out stemmed from watching The Normal Heart, one of the most wrenching pieces of theater ever written by man, Drake seems like a pretty brave kid with a cool mom.
