High School Valedictorian Comes Out as Bisexual to Ovation From Class

As New York City was gearing up for WorldPride, the valedictorian of a high school in New York (which has not been named) came out as a "proud bisexual man" in a moving speech to his graduating class. The room erupted in cheers when the student, Mason Bleu, shared his story with the audience at graduation.

In a speech about taking pride in who you are and what you do, Bleu opened up about why he decided to come out during his valedictory speech.

"I've struggled to be proud of something all my life. Since I'm preaching about being proud today, it would be hypocritical of me to continue hiding. I'm not someone who likes getting emotional, so saying this is extremely personal and hard," Bleu said.

"For a long time, I have struggled with my sexuality. I've dodged it and ignored it because I wasn't proud of who I am. But today I'm changing that. I'm proud to be a bisexual man."

Following a standing ovation, Blue urged those in the audience to take pride in themselves first.

"I've struggled with being proud of myself for a long time because I was afraid that no one else would be proud of me and for me. But an important thing about being proud is that you should always be proud of yourself before you want anyone to be proud of you," he said.

"On that note, I want to thank everyone for coming out today because I just came out, so thank you for coming out. Thank you so much and happy Pride!"

Bleu, who is interested in pursuing acting, appeared on CBS This Morning to say that he felt it was important to come out in part because he said he's not a "stereotypical LGBTQ kid."

"People wouldn't ever suspect me at all," Bleu said. "I didn't want people to think that it would be OK to hide because other people could feel that way."

The video of Bleu coming out as since gone viral.

"I am grateful that I did it, I'm grateful for the reaction and I'm, again, proud of doing something so great," he said.