Parents Refuse To Help Daughter Pay For College Because She's Gay

Nov 26, 2021 by apost team

In her sophomore year of high school, Brooklyn Owen’s father went through her teen’s phone and discovered that his daughter was gay. Owen’s parents then forced her to undergo “conversion therapy” and attend a church that espoused anti-LGBTQ views. Meanwhile, Owen avoided home, opting to keep herself busy with three jobs, after-school programs and swimming — on top of her normal high school schedule.

“One of the times that it was really, really bad, I was driving home from work, and I literally turned onto my road and I just burst into tears,” she told Teen Vogue in 2019. “I was pouring tears because I realized I had to go back there. I was tired. I was exhausted, but I had to put on a mask and watch every word. I had to act a certain way to not cause conflict.”

In 2018, Owen and her parents’ relationship reached a breaking point when the teen asked her parents to send her to a different church where the pastor didn’t hold such strong views against the LGBTQ community. The high schooler’s parents offered their daughter an ultimatum: keep going to church or move out.

Owen pleaded with her parents to reconsider, but her dad reportedly said, “No, we can’t compromise,” though he denies the claim.

And so Owen chose homelessness. For her senior year in 2018, she stayed with friends — without her family and without their support. In spite of her hardships, the teen held a 4.16 GPA, was her high school’s co-valedictorian and gained admission to Georgetown University, a prestigious private college in Washington, D.C.

But without her parents' support, Owen wasn’t able to afford the university’s $77,000 tuition, in part because the financial aid package she received was based on the assumption that her parents would contribute.

Luckily, Owen’s biology teacher, Jane Martin, stepped in and started a GoFundMe in the summer of 2018, which ended up raising $141,619. What’s more, Georgetown’s financial aid office adjusted Owen’s financial aid package so that her expected contribution was $0.

“Thank you to all of my supporters in Jacksonville and across the globe who have given their time, talents, and financial support to help me make my dream of attending Georgetown University a reality,” Owen wrote in a statement on Aug. 3, 2018.

Today, nearly four years since Owen’s story of hardship and perseverance broke, the young woman is not only set to graduate from Georgetown in 2022, but she’s also led her own TEDx talk, worked at the U.S. Capitol for Florida Representative Stephanie Murphy and is running for Florida State Senate. 

“Jacksonville needs a State Senator that will fight for them. For an equitable education for every child, including students of underfunded schools like the ones I attended. For a sustainable career for every adult, because I know what it's like to be overworked and underpaid,” Owen wrote in a GoFundMe update.

These accomplishments are on top of establishing and heading the Unbroken Horizons Scholarship Foundation Inc., which Owen founded in 2019 with the help of a $25,000 initial investment from Ellen DeGeneres.

The non-profit organization helps “students in marginalized communities access post-secondary education.”

apost.com

What do you think of Brooklyn’s story? What would you have done in her situation? What would you have done in her parents’ situation? Let us know — and pass this article on.