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This gay teen asked the straight football team captain to homecoming - here's what happened next

This gay teen asked the straight football team captain to homecoming - here's what happened next

Sometimes the news agenda can be one big downer, so when an uplifting story comes along, we're 100 per cent here for it.

This story is exactly one of those. A 17-year-old gay student has gone viral on social media after he asked one of his best friends, the straight captain of the football team, to accompany him to homecoming.

Alexander Duarte, a student at Valley High School in Santa Ana, California, recently staged the spectacular proposal for his friend Eric Pineda on National Coming Out Day, in a bid to send out a message of acceptance to other students at the high school.

Duarte asked out his friend to the homecoming prom with a banner that read:

I know I am gay, but can I take you straight to homecoming?

He also emerged through a door with the words 'out of the closet' written across it.

Eric accepted, and the two will attend the homecoming prom as friends on 20 October.

In an Instagram video of the proposal, Pineda made his way through a crowd of cheering students, and hugged his friend Duarte to accept the proposal.

Speaking to Instinct magazine, Pineda said:

I’m setting an example for not only my school, but also my community.

The [football] team is very supportive and multiple teammates have approached me to congratulate me and have given me ‘respect’ for my actions.

Duarte also explained to the magazine that he made the proposal in such a public way to 'set an example' to others at the high school:

I have never had a date to a dance and this is my senior year so something clicked inside and inspired me to actually ask [Pineda].

For me, it was also about setting an example for others on how to go all out on their proposals and, more importantly, that it is ok for a brown boy to ask another dude.

HT New York Post

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