Teen Comes Out at Disneyland and Her Story Goes Viral

Sometimes a family trip to the amusement park can be really special and in the case of 16-year-old Gina sometimes that trip can become a global sensation. Gina visited Disneyland in California earlier this summer. Before their trip, Gina created a rainbow-colored sign which read, “I’m Gay!” and smuggled it into the theme park. She held the sign until the perfect moment and that moment came when the duo was riding Splash Mountain. As the log ride plunged to its watery finale, Gina held up her sign to be captured by cameras. Mom got the message as they perused the souvenir shop monitors. Posting the photo on Twitter, she wrote: “this is how I came out yesterday lolol”. The post now has nearly 10,000 likes.

In an interview with Huffington Post, Gina said, “I couldn’t have ever asked for a better response from my family. I’m truly so lucky to have such amazing support from all of my friends and family. It made this process go much smoother than I could’ve ever imagined!” She told others in the closet: “It’s an overwhelming process, so just make sure you’re comfortable with who you are and make sure you’re prepared for questions or reactions people may have. I also know it’s sometimes hard to tell if you’re ready or not, so just be sure to give yourself time to really think about if you’re prepared.” Gina told Buzzfeed the reaction to her photo has been “amazing but overwhelming.” “I never expected it to blow up like this,” she said. “This Twitter account was just my spam account where I posted random fangirl stuff but I decided it couldn’t hurt to post it and the result was absolutely amazing.”
She said she has been very touched at all the nice comments she has received. “People have responded saying I’ve inspired them to do the same thing, which I think is the coolest part of it all,” she said.