It’s one thing to come out to your family and friends, but to tell the world is another thing altogether. That’s exactly what 15-year-old Caden Wyatt from Oklahoma did, though. And he did it with his dad by his side and a Pride flag hanging proudly outside their house.
“We are fixin’ to shock Oklahoma,” John Wyatt, 45, said in a TikTok video from earlier this month that’s since gone viral. The clip shows Caden attaching the flag to the front of the family home in Owasso, with Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” playing in the background. A photo at the end shows his mother, Janell Wyatt, under the flag as well.
In the caption, John wrote, “Happy Pride Month to y’all, especially to my son! Love you.”
@wyattearptulsaHappy Pride Month to y’all, especially to my son! Love you @cadenwyatt12 #pridemonth #pride2021 #ally #prouddad #proudmom Just do you boo… ⬠Born This Way – Lady Gaga
“I’m really lucky to have such supportive parents, because I know a lot of other people aren’t as lucky as me,” Caden told BuzzFeed News.
Owasso, which is just outside of Tulsa, is a strongly conservative community.
“There’s a lot of Q flags in our neighborhood, a lot of Trump flags and Blue Lives Matter Flags, [but] you don’t see any pride flags at all,” John said.
He admits that he wasn’t always supportive of the LGBTQ+ community. According to Buzzfeed News, he was very conservative and religious for most of his life. However, when he and his wife started wondering if Caden might be gay (when he was still a young child), they started to embrace the community.
“We knew our son was gay, and at any time he could come out,” John explained. “And he needed to see that we were going to be able to support him and be there for him.”
The flag hanging outside the Wyatts’ home is the ally flag, which features a rainbow letter “A” against a background of black and white stripes. Caden has a classic pride rainbow flag hanging in his room, but he hopes the ally flag sends the message that the whole family stands with the LGBTQ+ community.
“I want people to know that my parents have their back, and so do I,” Caden told Buzzfeed News.
In a follow-up TikTok, John explained what the ally flag represents, saying, “the black and white bars represent the heterosexual, cisgender community, the allies … and of course the rainbow colors in the ‘A’ represent the LGBTQ+ community.”
@wyattearptulsaReply to @hunterytho Black and White Bars: Represents heterosexual and/or cisgender people. We are our sons biggest allies.⬠original sound – John K Wyatt
John Wyatt has continued to interact with people and their comments through TikTok videos. The videos have struck a chord with many people in the LGBTQ+ community, including those who haven’t received the same level of support from their own families.
“My father does not speak to me anymore because of who I am so happy Father’s Day to you I wish you were my father,” commented one viewer. In response, John asked his wife, “We got room for another one?”
“Plenty,” she replied.
How sweet!
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for additional stories.
