When Sean came out as gay to his dad over text message, the response brought him to tears.

Sean Bailey had already come out to his family, after appearing on the news in his native New Zealand – he was discriminated against by his managers in McDonalds for being “too gay” in 2013.

Following the coverage of this incident, Bailey decided to come out to his mother and then the rest of his family before it was revealed on television.

“One of my managers said, ‘If you act gay on my shift, I will discipline you’. He also said, ‘If you turn anyone else in the store gay, I will punish you and make you lose your job.'” Adding, “I had to call in sick just because I couldn’t work with him, which meant I lost work hours and money.”

However, it seems his father missed the news coverage.

So as part of Bailey’s New Year’s Resolutions for 2015, he decided to be honest with his dad about his sexuality in a long text message.

His dad’s response moved Bailey to tears.

“I couldn’t stop crying because of what he had said but it was [happy] tears rolling down my face,” Bailey told HuffPost in an email.

Bailey has some encouragement for other LGBT people dealing with similar struggles: “[Y]ou will be loved for whoever you decide to be. Don’t hide who you are. Be the person you want to be and remember [you’re] not the only one.”