The Case for Coming Out...After College - The New York Times profiles Ryan Kim, a recipient of a scholarship from The Point Foundation. Ryan came out while attending his Colorado high school, and even though he was accepted to NYU, he didn't have the financial support from his parents in order to matriculate. Instead, he ended up moving to a Salvation Army residence in Los Angeles. I have to believe that Ryan's story is exceptionally uncommon...not only did he have high grades and Advanced Placement scores, he also had the wherewithal to get himself a job that was able to support him until he could line up the resources for college. With the scholarship, financial aid and the remarkable infrastructure of encouragement and assistance provided by Point Foundation mentors/surrogate parents, Ryan is now at Princeton University.

Ryan's story obviously delivers the kind of emotional high that makes me want to whip out the checkbook and make a donation...and I think he's a figure with whom gay liberal academic elitist readers of the NYTimes (myself included) can especially identify. But it also makes me wonder about the relative merits of coming out to family during high school. I suppose that all the kids are doing it these days, so maybe the work of this foundation is a short-term inevitability, until such time as coming out is Not a Big Deal.