Teenager comes out as gay in Sydney Catholic school assembly

Finn Stannard tells SBS News why he chose to share his journey to accepting his sexuality with 1,500 people, as footage of his powerful speech is released.

When Finn Stannard stood up in front of more than 1,500 students and teachers at his Sydney school, it was to say something he’d been weighing up for a long time.

“I have been working towards this speech for four years,” the then 17-year-old revealed to a packed assembly hall at St Ignatius' College, Riverview, earlier this year.

Then he told them all he was gay. 

Finn Stannard making his keynote address.

St Ignatius’ / SBS News

“Announcing yourself to the world is pretty terrifying,” he said in a video of the speech released exclusively through SBS News. “What if the world doesn’t like you?”

Announcing yourself to the world is pretty terrifying. - Finn Stannard

“Life was easier living as the straight eldest son. I had spent so long behind the façade of a confident, heterosexual man that I wasn’t sure if I knew how to be me.” 

READ MORE: See Finn's full speech here

Finn, who has just finished his HSC, now hopes sharing his keynote address - written to a younger version of himself - might help “all those people who are lost”, just as he was.

“I think that’s really the biggest reason I made sure I got up onto that stage and gave the speech,” he told SBS News. “I don’t think anybody should have to go through the feeling of loss that I felt like I’d gone through.”

Finn has just finished his HSC.

SBS News

Finn’s speech in June was bookended by at times fierce national debates about sexual orientation, most recently whether religious schools should have the right to discriminate against gay staff and students.

Two of St Ignatius’ most prominent alumni, former prime minister Tony Abbott and his former deputy Barnaby Joyce, were high-profile opponents of same-sex marriage in the lead up to last year’s plebiscite.  

For Finn - who will next year begin university studies to become a secondary school teacher - it was the resounding victory of the Yes vote that gave him the confidence to press ahead with his idea of doing the assembly.

“When the results of the plebiscite came out, that’s when I knew that I could do the speech and it would be alright in the end,” he said.