A gay teenager shared his anxiety about growing up to live a happy and successful life in a Humans of New York Facebook photo that shows him looking defeated, frowning while holding his head in his hands.
“I’m homosexual, and I’m afraid about what my future will be and that people won’t like me.”
The photo soon went viral, and within two hours of it being posted, former Secretary of State and 2016 candidate for the presidential election Hillary Clinton had a message of encouragement to personally share with the boy.
“Prediction from a grown-up: Your future is going to be amazing. You will surprise yourself with what you’re capable of and the incredible things you go on to do. Find the people who love and believe in you — there will be lots of them.”
The post was signed with an “H” to show that Hillary Clinton wrote it herself , and not one of her staffers.
https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork/posts/1010497585691008:0
It did not take long for Kristina Schake, Hillary Clinton’s deputy communications director, to take a screenshot of the comment and share it on social media , where the comment itself would go viral, as well.
By Sunday, this particular photo had almost 585,000 likes and had been shared over 54,000 times. Almost 62,000 people have liked Hillary Clinton’s inspiring comment.
Photos by Humans of New York photographer and creator Brandon Stanton often do very well on social media, which makes getting hundreds of thousands of likes somewhat typical.
The Humans of New York page features pictures of everyday people, usually unidentified, on the street with quotes about themselves or their situations.
Same-sex marriage and gay rights are major issues that Hillary Clinton has been campaigning on. A video was released by Hillary Clinton’s campaign that showed a montage of same sex couples getting married, and she echoed her belief that those couples should have equality.
“Some have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct, but in fact, they are one and the same. Being L.G.B.T. does not make you less human.”
There was controversy when Stanton claimed that Facebook removed the picture , and Hillary Clinton’s comment, from the social networking website, but a Facebook representative responded to the allegations Saturday and said the photo was temporarily unavailable due to a bug.
Hillary Clinton and her staffers are no stranger to the power of social media, and recently reached 1,000,000 likes on her official campaign Facebook page, putting her far ahead of the competition.
[Photo by Humans of New York Facebook page]
