For four years, Nat Werth worked hard to achieve a huge goal: graduating first in his class at Sheboygan Lutheran High School, a highly religious school in Wisconsin.

"Since freshman year, I had made it my goal to be valedictorian," he told BuzzFeed News. "Because being the gay student, I knew that if I didn’t distinguish myself I would just be a nobody and nobody would care about me."

In March, the 18-year-old received the good news. He'd done it. He was valedictorian. "I was really excited. My dreams were coming true," he said.

As part of the distinction, Werth expected to give the traditional valedictorian speech, an honor he was looking forward to.

But on May 24, sitting among his classmates in their matching caps and gowns, he didn't get to give his speech. That's because he says he was thinking of using his remarks to come out as gay.

"In the rough draft of my speech that I submitted to the administration, I came out in it," he said. "I knew that they wouldn’t let me say that at graduation, but I put it in the rough draft because for me it was part of the writing process and how I was reflecting on my high school career."

Werth hadn't totally committed to his public coming-out idea and admitted he expected to have to cut the lines about being gay. But he believes the administrators at the conservative school didn't trust he'd stay on script, and instead they let the salutatorian, or second-ranked student, give the speech.

"I told them I’d be willing to take it out, but they didn’t trust me, because that’s when they found out I was gay," he said. "And because they knew that I was gay, they chose not to let me give the speech."