Nolan Reisen

Nolan Reisen battled depression while concealing from his family and friends that he was gay. He isolated himself while trying to decide who he was.

Nolan found the confidence to tell his parents, and then gradually friends, that he was gay. Those close to him had a face to put on the LGBT community causing them to reprocess their homophobia to no longer made gay jokes.

Nolan restarted the Dubuque Hempstead High School Gay-Straight Alliance and raised tolerance and understanding in his high school. He was a resource to other students who had not come out and wanted to talk about their story or needed help coming out.

Nolan will graduate with a 4.27 GPA and attend Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio and plans to join the college’s LGBT student group.