A gay teenager’s heartbreaking letter written to his parents explaining why he had to leave home after they refused to accept him as their gay son.
Kent Mendez, 19, shared a copy of his letter – written in both English and Spanish – on Twitter Monday.
The letter has been retweeted over 15,000 times and has received an outpouring of sympathy and love.
“There hasn’t been a day where I haven’t cried or struggled to find the energy to get out of bed,” Mendez wrote in his letter. “This doesn’t feel like a home and I don’t think it ever will.”
“You have accused me of being a bad person, of being an embarrassment, and telling me I have a psychological disorder. I don’t think you guys will ever understand what it’s like to hear that from your own parents and how harmful and damaging it is to a child.”
Mendez listed the many efforts his parents made to “cure” him of homosexuality.
“The other day you asked me what parents were for,” Mendez wrote. “Parents are supposed to love and accept their children unconditionally.”
“It took me a lifetime to get to a point where I’m happy and secure with who I am and it breaks my hear that the two people that have supported me my entire life do not accept me when I’m finally happy with who I am. It pains me that you both can’t put aside your personal opinions and views and just love and accept me for who I am.”
“I’m leaving because I refuse to become another statistic,” he wrote.
Mendez closed his letter by telling his parents not to bother reaching out to him unless they were ready to accept him for who he is.
“I’m not sharing this for pity or for attention but because I know there are people out there just like me who are scared and stuck in abusive homes and I want to be an example that you’re never stuck and that there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” he tweeted after his letter went viral.
The teen is currently staying with a friend.
