A Democratic candidate running for election in Massachusetts has just opened up in a new video about dealing with homophobia. Rufus Gifford is one of ten Democrats running for the Dem. nomination in Massachusetts’s District 3. In the ad, he talks about being a gay man and what it was like for him growing up. “Anyone who can look in the face of a gay kid who grew up in the 80s and tell them that they haven’t struggled a day in their life, is fooling themselves.

He continues: “Yeah, I struggled. A lot less than most people on this planet and even in this community, but those struggles are so meaningful to me and they made me who I am…As someone who has been called names, has been discriminated against, as someone who wasn’t taken seriously for a lot of his life because of this, it made me initially want to fight for the 15-year old version of me.”