Jack Dow, 33
Senior Advisor, Disability Employment at Department of Health & Human Services
Cis male, Gay
He/him
Sitting at the back of the science lab, 16-year-old Jack slipped a little note to his bestie next to him. The note read, “I’m gay”. Without saying a word, she turned around, kissed him and gave him a hug, catching their teacher’s attention, and eventually the class.
Within a week or so, Jack had come out to his 10 closest friends in school.
“Being born with a disability, I’ve had many conversations with myself about it, like ‘why was I born this way?” and ‘why me and not anyone else in class?’ and eventually coming to terms with it. And I guess it was the same with being gay. I had a realisation, accepted it and felt that I just had to be honest and tell my friends,” Jack explains.
“In some ways, I was also testing the waters to see their reactions and to suss out who I could feel safe with and know who I can rely to have a couch to sleep on if my parents kicked me out,” Jack adds.
Jack’s friends took to the coming out positively and were so excited that they decided to set him up on a date.
“One of my friend’s knew another gay guy in town who worked at the local Target so she suggested that it would be a good idea for us to go on a date!” Jack chuckles recalling the story.
“I was 16 and was like, ‘Sure, whatever’ and off I went to meet this guy. We went to the movies and we went to a café for milkshakes after that… it was very sweet.”
Jack eventually came out to his parents and family when his father confronted him about a DNA magazine under his bed. After the initial shock and some trepidation, they realised that Jack was very much the same lovely person.
“Coming out wasn’t a realisation that ‘Oh, I’m now this,” but like my disability, it was just coming to terms that this too was a part of me,” Jack concludes.
Photo notes:
Jack and I travelled back to his hometown of Colac where we returned to visit his school and also stumbled upon the local Target store, fuelling many fond memories.