Nico Waltenbury - A College Senior - Opens Up About Coming Out and Wanting To Be The Role Model He Needed

This article, Grappling With Gay: Making Space For Self-Discovery, published last week in the The University of Western Ontario's student newspaper, The Gazette, was very poignant.

In it, Nico Waltenbury opens up about his difficult coming-out process, and what he now realizes:

I didn’t come out because I was ready or because I was sure; I came out because it was too painful to stay in the closet alone any longer.

and

Today, I can’t help but regret the opportunities I missed to be a role model in the LGBTQ2+ community on campus — to be someone who younger students could look to as out and proud, sending a signal that our campus was a safe place to be their authentic selves.

He writes that the article,

"is my last-ditch attempt to be an openly gay role model in my final months on Western's campus."

And I think it's more than that. By being his proud, authentic self, Nico is a role model far beyond the campus of his own college.

Read the full piece here.

And thanks, Nico. This standing up is how the world changes for the better.

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee