It was a normal day for Scott Dittman although he didn’t know that day could change his life and millions of lives of other LGBT families.
A few days ago Scott ordered a “Free Dad Hugs” shirt and he just thought it would be cool to go to a Pride Parade that was happening in Philadelphia.
He joined another partner from “Free Mom Hugs” organization and together they went to the parade.
“I just thought it would put a smile on people’s faces.”, Scott told an online content creation website. But Scott wasn’t expecting the kind of reaction he received from people.
The first person that hugged her was a lady, who came to him and hugged him tightly and started crying.
While describing his first hug, he told, “I turned around and she’s just standing there in front of me with tears in her eyes”.
This broke Scott’s heart too but that woman came forward again and hugged him again having a river of tears in her eyes. After that, she started to thank him over and over again.
Scott thought maybe this lady was a unique case but what happened next completely changed his views towards LGBTs.
The second hug was from a man who also couldn’t control tears while hugging Scott.
The man told him that he was abandoned by his parents when he became gay at the age of 19. And since then, that guy hasn’t received any love from his parents.
While giving an interview to local news, Scott talked about this guy and said, “He just melted. It was an honor to be involved in that, but it was terrible at the same time.”
That day, Dittman received hundreds of hugs of all kinds – full of smiles, sorrows, joys, and tears. But once he came back, he was shattered from inside and was a completely different person.
So he decided to write his experience on Facebook. He wrote, “Imagine that, parents. Imagine that your child feels SO LOST FROM YOU that they sink into the arms of a complete stranger and sob endlessly just because that stranger is wearing a shirt offering hugs from a dad”.
His post went viral within a few hours and until now it has received over 266K shares and 38K comments. Scott, later on, told that he had received hundreds of messages from unknown thanking him for bringing up this topic. He further told that many parents who abandoned their kids also messaged him and thanked him for opening their eyes.
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