To celebrate National Coming Out Day, we are sharing the story of one of our members, Jacob Horton. Jacob joined the chorus in 2019. During our Summer Concert, Rise Up, he shared his story with our audience at The Folly Theater. Here is his story:

So, while I was always an effeminate kid, my coming out story was in “tiers,” and I didn’t really come out to most of my family on my own, and in fact, I was outed to most of them.

The first one that found out was my Mom. I was 14 and in 8th grade, and I was just going through a lot, and mentally, I was feeling low. I found solace in a boy a year above me who was out at the time, and I was just pouring out feelings of fear and uncertainty with coming into my own as a gay man on top of saying I liked him via text.

Needless to say, my mama’s intuition kicked in, and she could tell something was up. I had a flip phone then, so she saw my texts. Her only regret was that I was too scared to tell her because she was completely accepting (she comes to our concerts too!).

My sister was the next one, and she found out from my mom, but she was immediately accepting because she is an open member of the LGBT community herself.

It was really just them two when it came to family that knew for the longest time, but something was eating at me because I hadn’t told anyone else.

My dad was the one I was most scared of telling just because we had differing views on things and I did not want him to stop loving me. We ended up having an argument over text, and I just so happened to blurt out that I was gay. He then called me to say that I am his son and he loves me unconditionally. We have been on greater terms ever since.

Then, for the rest of my family, I have to thank the chorus for helping me “come out.” My family knew how much the chorus meant so much to me, so they started researching so they could know more and start coming to concerts. They knew we were primarily a chorus of gay men and we did a lot for the LGBT community, so they began to ask my mom lots of “questions.”

Every time she told someone, she did it out of love and didn’t mean any harm. I thank her a lot for it because while I have “come out” in different ways to my family, I have always been met with blankets of love and acceptance.

I feel so grateful and lucky to have them.

– Jacob Horton, Tenor 2