The way the world should be

The video above from Teen Vogue is about the story of straight high school student Jacob Lescenski who asked his best friend, Anthony Martinez, who is gay, to be his date at their prom. The story was picked up by several outlets, and the two friends even appeared on Ellen (below), where they got a surprise.

This shouldn’t be a remarkable story, and for many young people these days, it isn’t. But for older folks, it’s still surprising, and that’s okay. It’s good for heterosexuals to get to know to know real LGBT people, it’s also good for them to see straight people who love and embrace their LGBT friends. And when it’s a young person doing it? Even better. Gives us oldies something to live up to.

In the Teen Vogue video, Anthony’s aunt wanted a cake that said, “You're gay, he's straight, you're going to prom, you couldn't have had a better date.” However, the store clerk—which she didn’t identify on camera—wouldn't put the word gay on the cake.

KVVU in Las Vegas reported it was the aunt’s local Wal-Mart, who said the associate in the store acted improperly—they have no policy against the word gay—and they’d contact the aunt directly to apologise and make it right. So, even that one little blot on the story has a bright side.

One day, no one will even notice when a boy goes to a dance with another boy, or a girl with another girl, and whether they’re a couple or a couple of friends won’t matter, either (and someday America will even get over its obsession with what’s written on cakes…). That day may be a way off yet, but stories like this show the future is more promising than we may sometimes think.

This story is about the way the world should be. It’s also about how sometimes young people have worked that out for themselves—in spite of us.