A 17-year-old teenager from Maryland in the US has become an unlikely internet sensation after tweeting photos of himself at his prom with his boyfriend despite his parents telling him he was not allowed to attend.
Myren posted a series of snaps of himself with his boyfriend Ralph, and wrote “My parents told me I couldn’t go to prom because I wanted to go with my boyfriend so I had to go behind their backs”.
The Tweet currently has over 40,000 likes and 17,000 retweets and while there has been some negativity (because internet) the couple have mostly been overwhelmed with support from the Twitterverse.
“The negative comments were the typical ‘This is disgusting’ or ‘If I was your dad I would beat your ass,'” Myren told Buzzfeed, however he did admit he was surprised by the positive reactions to his defiant act.
“I was surprised when I noticed that people were proud of me and that they respected the decision I had made,” he added.
Myren explained that his parents refused to accept his relationship with his boyfriend, but he decided he had nothing to lose by going anyway.
“My dad said I knew better than to ask him. I knew I wouldn’t get a yes from them, but I thought maybe they would have a change of heart. They never did,” Myren said.
“My parents won’t let me see him. It’s like I’m already living in punishment, so what do I have to lose by going to prom?”.
Despite the outpouring of support he has received, the teen admitted that he was sad his parents weren’t there with him to see him on his big day.
“Everyone’s mum was standing there taking pictures of their kids, talking about how beautiful they looked and how they were so proud of them… I imagined what my mum would have looked like taking pictures of me in my suit,” said Myren.
“When we were dancing together I teared up some because there were times where I never thought we would go to prom, but there we were.”
