In high school and at 16 years old, Jonathan Reyes was forced out of the closet by a water polo team member who got hold of his journal and posted its content on Instagram using an anonymous account.
As a shy child, Reyes was angry at this gesture.
“I was pretty mad about it,” he said, because “that was for me to do.”
However, Reyes is thankful because he probably would have never come out without it.
Reyes currently serves as the president of the Citrus College Gender and Sexuality Alliance club. Reyes said he decided to take the club up in his own shoes after the club became inactive due to COVID-19.
Reyes grew up in Glendora in a Hispanic household. But although born and raised in Glendora, he considers himself an Azusa kid because that is where he spends most of his time with friends.
Reyes attends classes at Citrus College and is an architecture major. He said one of his hobbies is drawing.
Reyes loves the water and was a competitive swimmer for Glendora High School. He works as a lifeguard at a water park, raging waters, and helps out with his high school swim team in the winter.
Soon after Reyes was outed in high school, he came out to his parents. His mother and siblings were accepting of his sexuality, but his devout Catholic father dismissed him, telling him he would grow out of it.
Reyes had a rough childhood, especially with his dad. He grew up with the expectation of “always being tough and to be a man.” He said he would always get yelled at for not doing things right, such as holding a flashlight correctly. Everything he did unsettled his dad in some ways because, in his dad’s eyes, he did it wrong.
This lack of acceptance led Reyes to make unwise decisions, such as picking fights at school and hanging out with people he describes as “ghetto.”
“I would just do stuff that was not good,” he said. “I would get myself in trouble… get into places I shouldn’t be.”
Reyes said this bit him back because of the loss he gained from it rather than anything good.
One of Reyes’ toughest times was having to be in the closet when he was younger and not being able to express himself truly.
“Keeping this mask of myself that I thought was me just to appease everyone else when it was just genuinely just hurting me,” he said.
Reyes has made peace with his dad not accepting him because he has a whole community that welcomes and cares about him.
Reyes said his dad’s support will never happen, which hurts, but it is small compared to the love and community he has now. However, Reyes still loves his dad, and “that’s definitely something that is not going to go away.”
Reyes also suffered the loss of his partner in high school due to gun violence, but he still keeps a positive attitude and always tries to see the better side of things. He said he could go through the worst thing ever and still be positive about it, which puzzles the people around him.
“I just don’t want to put me down,” he said.
As a club leader, Reyes believes in being on the same level as his members and not placing himself higher, which makes him approachable.
Reyes also selflessly puts his time and money into the club he is president of.
“During our Halloween party, he put money into the decorations and brought some food,” said Richard Dominguez, a friend of Reyes and Inter-club council of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance club. “He even sets aside time if any of us need to talk to him about concerns we may have.”
Dominguez described Reyes as a “confident, motivated, and strong-willed man whom people should strive to be.”
Reyes said he strives to make everyone comfortable while not being political because “it can get messy sometimes.” However, he is excited about LGBT rights and wishes to participate in fundraising to help the LGBTQ community.
In the fall of 2022, Reyes said he, alongside the Gender and Sexuality Alliance club, supported LGBTQ students from Azusa Pacific University as they staged a walkout “because their staff was very oppressive against the community.”
At 20, Reyes has come a long way from the shy and nervous kid he used to be. Reyes now leads a formerly defunct GSA club at Citrus College, where he hopes to create a safe space where LGBTQ students can be themselves because “without community, there is not much hope, and it is pretty lonely.”
With Reyes’ desire to be an architect, he hopes to build houses as a shelter where displaced LGBTQ people can find a home and community who love them no matter what.
Great article, well done! I’m thankful for Jonathan to be so brave to share his story with the campus community.