(CNN) It takes guts to come out to your friends and family. Matt Easton did a little more than that. He came out in front of a packed graduation crowd -- at a Mormon university.

The valedictorian chose to open up about his sexuality during his convocation speech at Brigham Young University, saying it was "important to share both for myself and the LGBTQ+ community at BYU."

"I stand before my family, friends and graduating class today, to say that I am proud to be a gay son of God," Easton said in his speech.

While I don't speak for everyone—my own experience is all I can vouch for—I hope that people know that we ARE here at BYU, and we're not going anywhere anytime soon. — Matty Easton (@easton_matty) April 27, 2019

Brigham Young University was founded by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The university's honor code says that while "same-gender attraction is not an Honor Code issue," the school has a "strict commitment to the law of chastity."

"Homosexual behavior is inappropriate and violates the Honor Code," the university policy reads. "Homosexual behavior includes not only sexual relations between members of the same sex, but all forms of physical intimacy that give expression to homosexual feelings."

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