Texas school's only gay football player accepted by everyone except his parents

By Dawn Ennis · Monday, June 19, 2017


Austin Hodges

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Austin Hodges, 19, is a rising sophomore at the University of Houston, an outstanding graduate of Anahuac High School, and a proud gay man whose struggle for acceptance was a cakewalk in the classroom and in sports, but a nightmare at home.

Players, parents, coaches and fans cheered on the only gay player on the high school team, even when he didn’t follow tradition and go to the locker room at half time.

“I headed to the other side of the field where, still wearing my football uniform, I applied some makeup and got ready to do high kicks and splits with the drill team,” Hodges wrote in an op-ed for Outsports.

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But what wasn’t so great was how his Southern Baptist parents reacted upon learning from a love letter that he had his first boyfriend, back in 9th grade.

< "As soon as I walked into the house my dad started yelling at me and saying many hurtful things that are just too hard to even type. My mom was screaming as well, saying it was “my choice” to be that way. As she saying this, she grabbed my hand and said just as it would also be my choice to not let her burn my hand on the hot stove as she was pressing it closer and closer.

My mom is a very stout woman and it took every bit of my strength to pull away from her so that she wouldn’t burn my hand. The next weekend, when my parents left the house, I stayed home knowing what I was about to do." >

Hodges tried to kill himself with an overdose of pills. Luckily he didn’t take enough. But upon waking up, he realized he wanted to come out to everyone at his high school in conservative southeastern Texas.

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https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2017/06/texas-schools-gay-football-player-everyone-except-parents/