Misha Brown, a 37-year-old influencer, actor, and host of the Wondery podcast The Big Flop, revealed in a TikTok video on July 17 that he had received an apology from his former high school bully — 20 years after graduation — after the bully’s 15-year-old son came out as gay.
“Hey man, I just felt like I needed to tell you that I’m sorry I was a damn jerk in school,” the message read. “Really, I’m sorry. But I’ve been following what you’ve done lately and it’s really cool. I’m proud of you. You’re like really helping people. The reason I wanted to tell you all this is I’ve got a son now. He’s 15, and he told me he’s gay. Man, all I thought about when he told me that was how I hope people are nicer to him than I was to you. It makes me proud to be his dad. And hopefully that makes up for something.”
Brown grew emotional as he shared the message, his eyes welling and his voice breaking.
“I would say that makes up for something, and I told him as much, but, wow. What a cool feeling to get that moment. I guess people can change,” Brown said in the video, which has since earned over 2.4 million views on TikTok.
Brown told PEOPLE he “didn’t know what to expect” when he first saw the message.
“I couldn’t think of a single reason as to why he’d reach out,” he said. “But there it was, and I opened it.”
Brown eventually reached out to his former bully and accepted the apology.
Growing up in a small town in Western New York, Brown stood out as a kid who loved Whitney Houston songs and Polly Pocket toys. He says he was bullied early on for not fitting masculine stereotypes.
“Being bullied as a child truly shaped the entire experience of growing up,” he told the magazine. “I overanalyzed every part of myself. How was I standing? Was I too loud? Was I safe in my surroundings?”
Brown told PEOPLE that after nearly two decades of healing, introspection, and sobriety, he learned to embrace himself and block out negativity — lessons he now shares with his 4 million social media followers.
Brown, author of the upcoming book Be Your Own Bestie (out next February), said parents of LGBTQ youth often share his content with their children to show they deserve a full, authentic life.
Brown hopes his reconciliation with his former bully can inspire others in similar situations.
“So many people have struggled through similar experiences, and maybe they can find a little healing of their own through this apology from my bully,” he said. “We can’t change other people or will them to give us retribution, but we can control how we show up for ourselves. I’m grateful that I got this moment, but I’m more lucky that I am in a place to accept it.”
The Boston Police Department has released photos of eight men suspected of involvement in an alleged hate crime against a gay couple in the city’s Mattapan neighborhood earlier this month. The images, several of them blurry, depict men of varying ages: one in a Red Sox hat with a white shirt and jacket; another with a small white beard wearing a Bass Pro Shop hat and black shirt; and a third, bald and in a maroon V-neck, sporting round sunglasses.
The other five suspects are pictured in varied outfits: a long-sleeved white shirt with jeans and white sneakers; an olive long-sleeve shirt with jeans; a black T-shirt and jacket with light blue pants, with hair in braids; a red sweatshirt with matching shorts; and a black-and-white tracksuit.
José Rolón, a gay father and popular social media influencer known as @nycgaydad, has filed a defamation lawsuit against right-wing commentator Stew Peters, who falsely accused him of "criminal sexual conduct" involving his three young children.
Rolón, who has more than 150,000 followers on Instagram and over 500,000 on TikTok, says he was barraged with death threats and vile messages after Peters attacked him online for sharing videos about his life as a single gay dad.
As reported by The Advocate, Rolón's legal team filed a five-count lawsuit in Kings County Supreme Court accusing Peters of defamation and bias-related intimidation under New York's Civil Rights Law, citing multiple false statements made against him.
Ten people are on trial in France, accused of engaging in sexist online harassment of First Lady Brigitte Macron by spreading false and malicious claims about her.
The posts alleged that the French president's wife is transgender and was born male under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux -- the name of her older brother. Some also equated the 25-year age gap between the 72-year-old first lady and her 47-year-old husband to "pedophilia," according to Agence France-Presse.
The Macrons first met in 1993, when Brigitte was a 39-year-old married teacher at Lycée La Providence in Amiens and Emmanuel Macron was her 15-year-old student -- and a classmate of her daughter. (The age of consent in France is 15.) They reconnected years later after Macron graduated from Lycée Henri-IV in Paris and married in 2007.
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