Gay Teen Asks Straight Captain of the Football Team to Homecoming

[George II]

9. These teenagers are smarter than the majority of adults. That gave me goose bumps.

Not only Pineda, but the dozens of classmates that cheered them on and were genuinely happy for Duarte.

When I was in Junior High School (almost 60 years ago!) I was the smallest in the class. I didn't have to deal with gay bashing (I'm straight) but a lot of bullying because of my size. Turns out a friend of mine, the captain (yes, not exaggerating) or our basketball team befriended me and became my "body guard".

He was head and shoulders better than any other player in school. When we had an intramural 3-player half-court basketball tournament, he chose me (I couldn't even dribble!) and another kid who had polio and had a serious limp. He told each of us to just stand in corners of the court, and he went one-on-three. We won.

Turns out he had a successful college career and coached a major college team for a number of years.