My Coming Out Story

I came out in my 12th grade English class. Not as an asexual, bisexual, or anything in between, but as a brony.

We were doing final presentations. My friend who went before me, included a fanmade ponypic in her Batman presentation. She meant to have deleted it, but she didn’t, so right at the end of her presentation she looked at me and said “How the heck did you get that in there without me noticing?” Everyone laughed, including me, because I didn’t do it. It was a good segue into my topic, though.

The assignment was to do a paper and a presentation on the humanity of out choice. I chose to do mine on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. So there I was, standing in front of the whole class. I unzipped my sweatshirt and revealed my Rainbow Dash tee-shirt. I was nervous, sweating buckets. I had no idea how these close-minded peers would take my love of a children’s show about colorful ponies.

I added lots of videos and images to the presentation. I also tried to include humour. I wanted it to be interesting, unlike most of the other presentations. I began by saying I chose to do My Little Pony because “It’s a great show. Like seriously, it’s awesome. And the animation is pretty good too”. They laughed. “You guys are laughing, but I’m not joking about this. It’s legitly a great show.”

I continued my presentation. I began by talking about the history of cartoons, explaining that shows like Felix the Cat and The Jackson 5ive were most likely created to torture prisoners. Then I began criticizing the My Little Pony ‘n Friends series. But seriously, potatoes as TV show characters… The writers could have done so much better than that.

Friendship is Magic has come a long way. It’s a well-developed show. It really is. Because of the animation, cute humour, and relatable characters, I am a brony. I am one of the highest scorers in one of the brony groups on freerice.com, a fact I did not forget to point out to my English teacher during the presentation. The class laughed at that.

I included one of the ponies who is based off of Doctor Who (Dr. Whooves), and that was met with several cheers from my classmates. I was so passionate about it, and I included many jokes and witty comments. I mentioned Lauren Faust (AKA Fausticorn the Magnificant Creator) and got some laughs. I included a picture that even poked fun of my Bronydom.

And when I was done with my presentation, there were tons of questions. I was glad to have them, because it meant that people were actually paying attention to my presentation. I was also worried that people would say the typical close-minded things they often do such as “Aren’t you a bit old for this?” or “You’re kidding, right? You’re graduating high school and you watch a show for three year olds?”

Instead, I got questions (even from the most close-minded, judgmental girls in the class) asking for more information on my topic. People asked what my favorite pony was. They seemed generally interested. When I sat back down in my seat, people were telling me that I did a great job. I looked at the clock. I probably took up half the period, and I didn’t notice a single one of my classmates check their phone or whisper to their friends. I guess everyone was pretty accepting of me being a brony.

• Posted in: The Fandom
• Tagged: Brony, MLP, MLP blog, MLP:FIM, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, TV