Reddit user and former bully James wrote took to the internet to apologise to a gay kid in school that he bullied daily just to hide his own sexuality.

An ex-homophobic bully, James, wrote in the subreddit LGBT about his experience in middle school and how he would subject a boy called ‘Nate’ to homophobic bullying and bigoted slurs.

He explained that his father is a homophobe who had, for years, told his son that being gay is wrong.

He went on to explain that his own fears and frustrations led him to target Nate, an open gay student in his school. He admitted that he was attracted to Nate and wasn’t ready to deal with the consequences of his feelings.

According to James, Nate does not have social media (that he knows of) and decided to take this time to apologise to his victim.

Considering the kid is only 18, this is a pretty big thing for him to do – even if he couldn’t do it to his victim’s face.

Read the full post below:

Hello everyone, for starters let me introduce myself, my name is James and back in middle school I used to bully other students who seemed feminine and were openly gay, I was the typical Christian homophobic bully.

I grew up in a completely Christian household, my father would often post anti-gay/ anti-democrat images on his Facebook, print them off and put them on the fridge. He would constantly teach me that homosexuality was wrong, which I guess is what got that sort of thought into my mind.

Well in middle school there was this one student who we’ll call “Nate”.

For the things I’ve said to Nate, I wanted to apologies. I would constantly call him a “fag” “faggot” “gay boy” “queer”, and other things. He did nothing wrong to me, and yet I still felt so afraid of him that I resorted to insults. Sadly nowadays I have no way of contacting him, he doesn’t use Facebook, he doesn’t live near me, and we’re both probably no longer in school. For everyone out there who’s been in either my situation, or Nate’s situation, I’m sorry.

If you’re in my situation, please don’t resort to verbal abuse over things that scare/ frighten you, be strong, talk to people in a civilized manner, and open up to them. I know I’m gay, I think I bullied Nate so much because I was afraid of being like this, I wanted to be the strong straight kid my dad always wanted.

If you’re in Nate’s situation, please stay strong. You didn’t do anything wrong, those who bully you or insult you are most often then not having an identity crisis. I’m here for you now, and want to know that you’re perfect just the way you are.

Again I can’t apologies to Nate now, but if I could I would want to tell him this; I’m sorry for all the verbal harassment I put you through, the truth is I always thought you were pretty cool and sort of attractive, and that frustrated me. You were always the stronger one between us both, you were proud to be you and always kept your head held high. Fight on, and live an amazingly happy life with whomever you love. My thoughts are with you, please… please stay strong.

Edit: Wow, I wasn’t expecting anything to come from this post, and to see someone gifted me Reddit gold? That’s awesome. However I have no doubt that any money should instead go towards a LGBT assistance charity such as the Trevor Project. Again you guys are all awesome, and have definitely helped me through some issues, especially since my father is only just figuring out my sexuality.

Though Reddit can be questionable in its authenticity, let’s just hope that this is all real.