Gay teen bullied for wearing a prom dress is gaining widespread support

A gay teen taking pictures at his senior prom was ridiculed by a man on Saturday outside of the Harpeth Hotel in downtown Franklin, Tennessee. Dalton Stevens, a senior at Franklin High, was having a photoshoot with his boyfriend, college freshman Jacob Geittman, when they were verbally accosted by a man later identified as Sam Johnson, 46.

Geittman claims that Johnson got into Stevens’ face as they were taking photos. This part of the incident was not captured on video.

“This man comes up and he’s about an inch away from my boyfriend and he says, ‘What are you wearing?’ And he’s like, ‘A dress, why?’ And he’s like, ‘Why are you wearing that? You shouldn’t be wearing that,'” Geitmann said according to WVNews.

Stevens said that Johnson then began hurling homophobic slurs at him.

“Slander terms thrown towards me of like ‘you look bad,’ ‘you’ve got hair on your chest, you shouldn’t be wearing a dress,’ ‘you’re not a man,’ blah, blah, blah,” Stevens said. “The fact that he thought he had the audacity to come tell me what I was supposed to wear, and what I was supposed to do because of his standards.”

Did Johnson really think that the young gay couple cared to hear his thoughts on fashion?

In the video, Johnson can be seen trailing the teens with a condescending smirk on his face saying, “You look like an idiot,” even though the couple told him to stop.

“I’m sorry, I’m gorgeous,” Stevens says in the video. “Are you?” Johnson responded.

Towards the end of the clip, Johnson can be seen taking a swipe at Geittman’ss phone and demanding that he stop filming him. In a later video, Geittman claims that Johnson knocked the phone out of his hand and that he was “pretty obviously drunk.”

Stevens decided to wear a dress to prom because he wanted to make a bold statement and because he views clothing as “genderless.”

After the video was posted online it quickly went viral after being shared by comedian Kathy Griffin, actor Billy Porter, and musician Richard Marx. Porter’s support for the teens is wonderful given his history of making controversial fashion choices. He wore a dress to the Academy Awards two years ago to challenge to the Academy’s rigid black-tie dress code.

Griffin took no prisoners in her support for the teens. In her tweet she named Johnson, saying, “It seems like he’s dying to be online famous.” The video received 9.7 likes and over 4,000 shares.

Griffin’s support rallied countless people around the teens.

It didn’t take long for Johnson to face consequences for taunting the teenagers with homophobic slurs. On Monday, he lost his job as the CEO of Visuwell, a telemedicine company.

“Visuwell’s culture emphasizes respect, kindness, and compassion, especially for those from traditionally marginalized communities, and we maintain a zero-tolerance policy for intolerance of any kind,” a statement posted to Twitter reads.

“Mr. Johnson’s actions contradicted the high standards we set for ourselves in promoting the health of those who use our platform,” the statement continued.

Johnson responded to the incident by claiming that the confrontation was not about the dress, but the “obnoxious, loud behavior by this group of teens.” He said he approached them because they were shouting obscenities around families and children.

Johnson’s homophobic behavior in front of the teens was disturbing, to say the least. It also showed an incredible lack of self-awareness. Why would anyone behave that way when they know they’re being filmed? It’s 2021, you’re going to go viral in the worst way possible.

Kudos to Kathy Griffin, Billy Porter, and Richard Marx for jumping in and supporting the young couple by using their platform to expose those who threaten the LGBTQ community. Hopefully, this will make people like Johnson think twice before attempting to intimidate teenagers simply for dressing how they want.