"Ugly Betty" episode brings back memories...

I nominate last Thursday's episode of "Ugly Betty" for a GLAAD Award. Any gay high school kid who watched it I'm sure identified with the pain Justin was feeling when his new best friend, Randy, succumbed to peer pressure and blew him off in favor of his "cool" buddies who couldn't believe he was even hanging out with a drama geek.They had watched the school production of "Little Shop of Horrors" together and Hilda had scored them tickets to the Broadway show "In the Heights."

Here's where the show hit a home run: Justin was inconsolable after Randy rejects him. When Hilda gets the story out of him, she sets him straight about being made to feel that he doesn't fit in with Randy and his friends:

"That's their problem, because you are perfect. But you're going to meet a lot of stupid people in your life, and they're just not going to get you. Screw 'em. All that matters is that you never, for a second, change who you are."

What a message to put out there. If I'd heard it when I was 14 or so, maybe I wouldn't have spent so many years building up a "straight" persona only to have to completely dismantle it later in order to be happy. Partly because of shows like this, far more gay kids are accepting themselves as they are from the start.