[Applause]
everybody um as some of you may already
know I’m gay and if you don’t know who I
am hi I’m Katie and I’m gay hi Guillermo
I recognize you
and you know this is something that I
find to be a very important part of
myself that I’m very proud of and when I
came out of the closet I got plenty of
different responses you know I got the
I’m proud of yous and I got the thank
you for telling me and I got the oh I
already knew that which is personal
favorite of mine and you know I will
never discount any of those replies
because they’re so full of compassion
they’re so full of support but the truth
of the matter is when coming out of the
closet things don’t always go as planned
I came out to my mom on December 10 2015
I remember the exact day because at that
point in my life I had just become so
exhausted
and I had become so tired of faking it
and of pretending and concealing this
huge part of myself that you know I was
so proud of and my mom is the most
important person in my life and I love
her with all my heart and more so I felt
like I owed her the opportunity to know
her daughter for who she truly is so I
sat her down and I said mommy I’m gay
and I’m not ashamed of it in fact I’m
proud of it and it’s not something that
I can change but it’s not something I
want to change its Who I am and I don’t
really know what I expected her to say
at that point but what she did end up
saying was not exactly what I wanted to
hear where she said to me Katie do you
expect me to be happy about this
do you expect me to be okay with this of
course I’m not happy about this of
course I’m not okay with this I’m
embarrassed and as you can imagine that
killed me to hear that because you know
here stood this woman that had loved me
and nurtured me and cared for me for 16
years of my life up to that point and I
when she looked me in the eyes I really
did feel like she didn’t recognize me
anymore and I felt like
she didn’t love me anymore and you know
I let these horribly negative thoughts
just completely consume me to the point
where I began to lose confidence and I
began to be ashamed of my sexuality and
I began to stop loving myself but here’s
the thing even the next morning after
coming out of the closet to her she
still woke up an hour early to cook
breakfast and to cut me some fruit
because I always forgot to eat breakfast
in the morning and she still went to
work from 8:00 to 6:00 to make enough
money to offer me everything I needed in
this cushy year of my life that I’ve
been so used to and you know she gave
all of herself to everyone around her
because that’s my mom that’s just who
she is and she’s a wonderful woman I
mean she’s so brave and she’s so
intelligent and she’s so hard-working
and she’s so passionate and that’s the
mom that I think of I don’t think of the
mom that may not be as accepting of my
sexuality as other people because that
devalues who she is as a person and
that’s not fair because it’s her
generation and it’s her Catholic
upbringing and it’s her extremely
conservative Korean values that led her
to believe that gay is not okay but
that’s not her fault and it’s not my
fault that I’m gay it just simply is
what it is and you know things are
better now where I don’t have to pretend
like I don’t have a girlfriend anymore
and I don’t have to call my celebrity
crush a celebrity girl crushes because
they’re automatically celebrity girl
crushes because I’m gay and you know
just my mom simply by being she is you
know she taught me so much about life as
my favorite philosopher jean-paul Sartre
once said one will never be able to
explain one’s action by reference to a
given and specific human nature in other
words there is no determinant man is
free man is freedom and what he meant by
that is that in essence humanity is
subjectivity where everything and
anything is possible you know who am I
to say that my values and my beliefs
aren’t errantly correct I can’t say that
because there is no right or wrong at
the end of the day you know just take
your
for example your favorite color might be
blue but then the person’s your last
favorite color might be green and the
person to your right favorite color
might be yellow but who’s to say that
blue green or yellow is the best or
worst color no one can say that because
they’re just colors they are what they
are and you know this also applies to
religious beliefs or political beliefs
or cultural beliefs and this diversity
of perspective is what drives humanity
it’s what color’s our world because if
we dress the same and we look the same
and we spoke in the same manner and we
believe the same things we ate the same
things I’d be so boring I mean the most
fun part about life is the fact that
nobody’s the same and within all of our
minds lives this incredibly beautiful
incredibly fascinating and individual
conscience that can never be replicated
by anyone in the past present or future
and instead of being scared of this we
should cherish this and we shouldn’t
ignore it we should bring more attention
to the fact that this isn’t my world and
this isn’t my mom’s world and it isn’t
anyone’s individual world it’s our
collective world and if any of you ever
start to doubt one day who you are or
who you want to be or where you want to
be at some point in your life just
remember that everyone feels that way at
some point in their life because so many
things are possible but that shouldn’t
scare you it should encourage you to
start conversations and to welcome new
people into your life that may not agree
with you because then you’ll have an
opportunity to learn and you’ll have an
opportunity to teach and you’ll have an
opportunity to shine your light on
people’s lives that you may have never
even met if you were to be so
close-minded about who you are as a
human
you
everybody um as some of you may already
know I’m gay and if you don’t know who I
am hi I’m Katie and I’m gay hi Guillermo
I recognize you
and you know this is something that I
find to be a very important part of
myself that I’m very proud of and when I
came out of the closet I got plenty of
different responses you know I got the
I’m proud of yous and I got the thank
you for telling me and I got the oh I
already knew that which is personal
favorite of mine and you know I will
never discount any of those replies
because they’re so full of compassion
they’re so full of support but the truth
of the matter is when coming out of the
closet things don’t always go as planned
I came out to my mom on December 10 2015
I remember the exact day because at that
point in my life I had just become so
exhausted
and I had become so tired of faking it
and of pretending and concealing this
huge part of myself that you know I was
so proud of and my mom is the most
important person in my life and I love
her with all my heart and more so I felt
like I owed her the opportunity to know
her daughter for who she truly is so I
sat her down and I said mommy I’m gay
and I’m not ashamed of it in fact I’m
proud of it and it’s not something that
I can change but it’s not something I
want to change its Who I am and I don’t
really know what I expected her to say
at that point but what she did end up
saying was not exactly what I wanted to
hear where she said to me Katie do you
expect me to be happy about this
do you expect me to be okay with this of
course I’m not happy about this of
course I’m not okay with this I’m
embarrassed and as you can imagine that
killed me to hear that because you know
here stood this woman that had loved me
and nurtured me and cared for me for 16
years of my life up to that point and I
when she looked me in the eyes I really
did feel like she didn’t recognize me
anymore and I felt like
she didn’t love me anymore and you know
I let these horribly negative thoughts
just completely consume me to the point
where I began to lose confidence and I
began to be ashamed of my sexuality and
I began to stop loving myself but here’s
the thing even the next morning after
coming out of the closet to her she
still woke up an hour early to cook
breakfast and to cut me some fruit
because I always forgot to eat breakfast
in the morning and she still went to
work from 8:00 to 6:00 to make enough
money to offer me everything I needed in
this cushy year of my life that I’ve
been so used to and you know she gave
all of herself to everyone around her
because that’s my mom that’s just who
she is and she’s a wonderful woman I
mean she’s so brave and she’s so
intelligent and she’s so hard-working
and she’s so passionate and that’s the
mom that I think of I don’t think of the
mom that may not be as accepting of my
sexuality as other people because that
devalues who she is as a person and
that’s not fair because it’s her
generation and it’s her Catholic
upbringing and it’s her extremely
conservative Korean values that led her
to believe that gay is not okay but
that’s not her fault and it’s not my
fault that I’m gay it just simply is
what it is and you know things are
better now where I don’t have to pretend
like I don’t have a girlfriend anymore
and I don’t have to call my celebrity
crush a celebrity girl crushes because
they’re automatically celebrity girl
crushes because I’m gay and you know
just my mom simply by being she is you
know she taught me so much about life as
my favorite philosopher jean-paul Sartre
once said one will never be able to
explain one’s action by reference to a
given and specific human nature in other
words there is no determinant man is
free man is freedom and what he meant by
that is that in essence humanity is
subjectivity where everything and
anything is possible you know who am I
to say that my values and my beliefs
aren’t errantly correct I can’t say that
because there is no right or wrong at
the end of the day you know just take
your
for example your favorite color might be
blue but then the person’s your last
favorite color might be green and the
person to your right favorite color
might be yellow but who’s to say that
blue green or yellow is the best or
worst color no one can say that because
they’re just colors they are what they
are and you know this also applies to
religious beliefs or political beliefs
or cultural beliefs and this diversity
of perspective is what drives humanity
it’s what color’s our world because if
we dress the same and we look the same
and we spoke in the same manner and we
believe the same things we ate the same
things I’d be so boring I mean the most
fun part about life is the fact that
nobody’s the same and within all of our
minds lives this incredibly beautiful
incredibly fascinating and individual
conscience that can never be replicated
by anyone in the past present or future
and instead of being scared of this we
should cherish this and we shouldn’t
ignore it we should bring more attention
to the fact that this isn’t my world and
this isn’t my mom’s world and it isn’t
anyone’s individual world it’s our
collective world and if any of you ever
start to doubt one day who you are or
who you want to be or where you want to
be at some point in your life just
remember that everyone feels that way at
some point in their life because so many
things are possible but that shouldn’t
scare you it should encourage you to
start conversations and to welcome new
people into your life that may not agree
with you because then you’ll have an
opportunity to learn and you’ll have an
opportunity to teach and you’ll have an
opportunity to shine your light on
people’s lives that you may have never
even met if you were to be so
close-minded about who you are as a
human
you
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