A gay teen is receiving an outpouring of support online after standing up to his bully.
Jordan Steffy, a junior at LaPorte High School in Indiana, posted a video to Twitter last week sharing a video of a fight between him and another classmate. Steffy can be heard demanding the other kid stop calling him a f****t, and when the kid doesn’t back down, Steffy starts hitting him.
According to Insider, Steffy says he has been bullied ever since he came out in seventh grade. The breaking point came when the classmate he fought with posted something about him on Snapchat.
“He made an anti-gay post with a picture of me on it saying how he hated gays and a bunch of throwing up emojis all over it,” he said. “I walked up to him and said ‘Why did you post this?’ He said ‘It was just a post.’ And I said ‘Well it’s not just a post. It’s a post about me, saying how you dislike who I am, and I don’t appreciate that.’”
Steffy says the classmate kept challenging him, asking him what he was going to do about it, and calling him a f****t to his face. And he just finally realized he had had enough.
While the school suspended both teens for fighting, Twitter took a different stance, praising Steffy for standing up for himself.
None— Johnna Wise (@Johnna Wise) 1573499902
\u201c@JordanSteffy1 School administrators and teachers: \u201cwe don\u2019t like to get involved because kids need to learn to handle these things themselves.\u201d\n\nKid does what needs to be done to stop the bullying\n\nSchool administrators and teachers: \u201cno, not that.\u201d\u201d— Muscle Dad Monkeh \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83d\udcaa\ud83c\udffd\ud83d\udc35 \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6 Commissions \ud83d\udfe2 (@Muscle Dad Monkeh \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83d\udcaa\ud83c\udffd\ud83d\udc35 \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6 Commissions \ud83d\udfe2) 1573338831
None— IDontLikeBS (@IDontLikeBS) 1573536864
\u201c@JordanSteffy1\u201d— Detox... (@Detox...) 1573447998
\u201c@JordanSteffy1 Jordan\u2019s rainbow slap \ud83c\udf08\nhttps://t.co/rOwkEc0Lze\u201d— Zander Doyle \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 (@Zander Doyle \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08) 1573362038
\u201c@JordanSteffy1 Props to you for standing up for yourself and taking down a homophobe! It seems like no one was doing a damn thing when you were being called a disrespectful word so you took matters into your own hands.... we stan\u201d— \ud83d\udd78\ud83d\udc96\u27ed\u27ecA\u0274\u0262\u026a\u1d07\u2077\ud83d\udc96\uc815\uad6d_Admirer\ud83d\udc96\ud83e\udd87\u221eJK Day soon \ud83e\udd70 (@\ud83d\udd78\ud83d\udc96\u27ed\u27ecA\u0274\u0262\u026a\u1d07\u2077\ud83d\udc96\uc815\uad6d_Admirer\ud83d\udc96\ud83e\udd87\u221eJK Day soon \ud83e\udd70) 1573350032
\u201c@JordanSteffy1 You\u2019re doing amazing, sweetie \ud83d\udc51\ud83d\udc51\ud83d\udc51\u201d— Jon Spurny (@Jon Spurny) 1573269778
\u201c@JordanSteffy1 Sweet angel boy, although I normally don't condone fighting, I am 100 % behind you in this. I could tell you 'had had enough of this ugliness' and I could feel the emotion you sent through that hit. Good for you.\u201d— Sue (@Sue) 1573430128
\u201c@JordanSteffy1\u201d— scarlet witch (@scarlet witch) 1573299757
Steffy has been handling all the attention well, saying that he does regret using violence, but he’s also happy that he finally stood up for himself and people are supporting him for doing so.
The teen reports that his mother is frustrated with how the school handled things and is going to homeschool him for here on out. But with only a year and a half of high school left, Steffy won’t have to wait too long to hopefully move on to a place that’s hopefully far more accepting and with way fewer homophobes. Whereas the bullies are always going to be stuck with themselves.
