Coming out to friends and family can be a hurdle, but coming out to a group of strangers in a public setting is another feat entirely. That didn’t keep Benton Sorensen from coming out as transgender during a class presentation about inspiration. After showing a picture on the overhead projector of a young girl with a pretty smile and long, light brown hair, Sorensen confidently shares his story of female-to-male transitioning with a classroom full of strangers.
Our society places an incredible amount of pressure on all of us to fit its predetermined heteronormative standards of sexuality, sometimes making it difficult for any person on the queer qpectrum to find a voice. But Sorensen’s experiences shared in both his class PowerPoint as well as on his YouTube vlog make him a fearless proponent for trans education and acceptance. “Our professor assigned us an ‘inspiration’ project,” he writes in the video’s description. “We had the freedom to do whatever we wanted with it, so I thought it was a great opportunity to come out to my new class and tell them that I am a female to male transgender.”