To most, Harry Styles is a distant memory from middle school. Days of green eyes, curly hair, and wondering what makes you beautiful. But to one AU student, Harry Styles was the catalyst to what she says was the “most important moment of [her] life”.
Grace, a freshman at AU, spent her summer traveling with a group of friends attending a total of ten shows to support her idol. She made a stop in San Jose, California for her eighth. At this concert, Grace made a double-sided sign that read, “I’m gonna come out to my parents because of you!”.
Little did she know Harry would take care of that for her.
I spoke with Grace about that important night:
“I wasn’t sure if I was even going to hold up the sign. I kind of decided, you know what, tonight feels like a good time,” Grace said. When asked why she chose a Harry Styles concert, she explained that even if he didn’t acknowledge it, she just wanted him to know how much he meant to her.
“He’s a proud supporter of the LGBTQ+ community and he’s made a lot of fans feel comfortable and proud to be who they are. I’m just one example of that,” she said.
So of course when Harry saw the sign, he had to read it out to the entire arena (and the moment was caught on Instagram for proof!)
Harry first politely asked if he could read the sign, a thoughtful gesture. He then pressed, asking Grace her name, and finally her mom’s name. Harry then proceeded to silence over 17,000 people and screamed:
“TINA! SHE’S GAY!”
“Throughout the whole conversation, I was like, this is not happening right now. I blacked out a little bit because this person who has been in my life since I was 11 years old is sharing this monumental moment of coming out with me. It was super overwhelming. When he had the whole arena scream ‘Tina, she’s gay!’ He just looked so happy and it made my heart swell. He said to me, ‘Congratulations, I’m so happy for you’ and that just…I couldn’t believe it.”
After the show, Grace showed her mom the video.
“All I was thinking about was my mom. All I could think was, ‘Tina.’ All I wanted to do was show this to her.”
And who could blame her?