Student Comes Out in Brilliant Yearbook Quote
A high school senior from New Jersey made headlines this month for his hilarious yearbook quote where he came out as gay.
Maxwell Barrett, 18, who is graduating from Raritan High School in Hazlet, N.J., said his quote wasn't his own but he saw something similar online: "Of course I dress well, I didn't spend all that time in the closet for nothing," his yearbook quote reads, crediting an unknown scholar.
"I had never done sports, or clubs. I was always just an art student. I wanted to go out in a way people would remember me by," he told the Huffington Post.
Barrett said the quote was his way to come out to his parents and not really his classmates, who already knew he was gay. He told the HuffPo his family has been supportive.
"They said [the quote] was the best one in the yearbook and that they were proud of me," the teen said.
In an interview with Mashable, he revealed when he submitted his quote, a school administrator initially took issue with it.
"I had submitted mine and a few weeks later I had received word that my quote had been pulled by the advisor of the yearbook club," he said. "I was given no justification as to why this had happened so I went to the advisor to ask. She had said I was trying to give myself too much 'shock value' and that the yearbook publisher would never allow the quote to be published."
He took the issue up with Raritan High School Assistant Principal Robert Generelli, who assured him the quote would make it into the yearbook.
"I asked the advisor of the yearbook club to send me a copy of the rule book on senior quotes and someone I could contact to ask them if the quote it allowed," Barrett told Mashable. "As soon as I did that, she told me the quote will be in the yearbook. I had received the help of my vice principal and teachers to get the quote back into the yearbook! It was a great feeling."
In a related story, it was reported in May Caitlyn Cannon's yearbook quote went viral and many lauded her message of woman's and gay rights.
"I need feminism because I intend on marrying rich and can't do that if my wife and I are making .75 cent for every dollar a man makes," wrote Cannon in her yearbook. Read the full story here.