(Insert play name) is a performance which aims to bring to light the similarities and differences of events going on today, focusing on character's emotions and bringing those characters into the modern day.

My monologue is based on an adolescent girl named Elaine, who is contemplating whether or not to join the riots outside of the Stonewall Inn. The character's personality and her time period is conveyed through the way that it is performed, and the emotional words and thoughts in the writing itself. It's fairly relevant to revisit modern issues through the perspective of this character, because it is still hard to come out of the closet, even now, and LGBTQ+ people are still discriminated against in our society.

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I like to think that I'm normal, that I'm just like everyone else. I go to school, I get relatively good grades, I talk with my friends about what to do over the weekend. But... I'm not. I think about more things than what to do over the weekend; I think about how I'm going to tell people about who I am, how I'm going to avoid the subtle glares, the jeering, and the people slamming me into lockers and calling me names. How I'm going to avoid my parents when they figure out. How I'm going to run, and hide, and not come out until the clouds overhead disperse, until that world without prejudice finally comes.

It's 1969, and people are rioting in the streets outside of the Stonewall Inn. It was recently found out to be a gay bar, and so the police raided the place. I want to join the protest, but if I do, everyone will know. My friends, my family, teachers, classmates. All of them will know who I am, and sit and stare, and point and judge, until my mask of stability cracks, until I lose it. Until I lose it all.

But hiding is worse. I can't sit by and watch others just like me be shot in the streets. I can't wait for that tomorrow, because if I do, others will never see it come. I can't hide from myself, because if I don't come out of this closet that I've been stuck in, the future I'm looking forward to might never come. The world won't change if you sit back. So, I think it's time to say it, loud and clear.

I'm gay, and proud.