Crowdfund Raises Thousands to Assist Gay Teen Disowned by Parents

More than $50,000 has been raised to assist with the education of a US college athlete who claims to have been disowned because she is gay.

Promising cross-country runner Emily Sheck was in danger of having to pull out of College, in Buffalo, until her room-mate set up a GoFundMe page to support her.

Her parents had allegedly kicked her out of the family home in Rochester after discovering via her social media accounts that she had a girlfriend, shared 9 news.

Ms Scheck, 19, told the Buffalo News she had received a text from her mother that read, “Well, I am done with you. As of right now, you declare yourself independent. You are on your own. Please don’t contact us or your siblings…. Because you disgust me.”

She was apparently given an ultimatum: Come home and get therapy, or get cut off.

Ms Scheck said her parents removed her car from their insurance, and her father drove to the college to take its licence plate and fill it with personal belongings, including clothes, treasured photos and even her birth certificate.

“I never would have guessed in a million years that this was something that was going to happen to me,” she told the paper.

Her room-mate, Grace Hausladenhad, called on the generosity of friends and strangers to support the teen athlete, who had been juggling two part-time jobs, schooling and her running.

“This is Emily. My friend, my teammate, and fellow classmate,” she wrote on the GoFundMe post.

“Emily graduated from Webster Schroeder in 2017 and played soccer and ran for their high school team. She still holds the school’s record in the mile.

“Currently, Emily is 19 years old and a sophomore at Canisius College. She runs for their Division I Cross Country and Track programs and is going for her business degree.

“In August of this year, our friend Emily was kicked out of her home. Her parents found out that she has a girlfriend through her social media, and they gave her the choice; come home and go to therapy or stay at school and be completely cut off. She chose the latter and has been doing her best to stay afloat in college without the financial support of her parents.”

The page – set up initially with a $5000 target – has surpassed $57,000 and money is still coming in.

Her father Timothy has since told the Buffalo News that his family loves and accepts Emily, and that any mentions of disowning her were only attempts to pressure her to come home.

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33 Comments

- - meedee said
  - 26 Dec 2022
    9:13 am
Interesting that the Dad says they were only trying to get her to come home. How about using love and acceptance to get her to come home rather then hate.

- - Ellen said
  - 05 Jan 2019
    9:26 am
So sorry for this girl, parents should love and cherish their kids forever.
Don’t like Crowd funding pages though.

- - nealsq said
  - 04 Jan 2019
    2:48 pm
It is disgusting, disgusting that any parent could do this to their child

- - ~Loui~ said
  - 01 Jan 2019
    10:48 pm
I hope the parents get some therapy. That poor girl, no amount of money would make up for not having her parents support.

- - ella12 said
  - 29 Dec 2018
    8:05 pm
Parents should be there to support their children.

- - Blossom said
  - 09 Dec 2018
    10:41 pm
I wonder if Emily would really be welcome home with no pressure, conditions etc.
What will the surplus funds be used for?

- - sars_angelchik said
  - 27 Nov 2018
    1:11 pm
Disgusting behaviour by the parents. I will always support my children even if I don’t understand their life choices.

- - mom74005 said
  - 26 Nov 2018
    6:32 pm
in this day it surprises me how some parents can still act in this manner.

- - rachel1970 said
  - 24 Nov 2018
    5:09 pm
How terrible, how could parents treat one of their children this way. Gay or straight, the parents should be there to support their kids.

- - mom101628 said
  - 23 Nov 2018
    10:17 pm
Sorry, but I don’t like crowd-funding. Happy to help through agencies set up to help, but these pages are not right in my mind.

- - tessie said
  - 23 Nov 2018
    12:24 pm
I have only crowd funded twice and that was for people that I know and they were both suffering from cancer and only young. The money went towards their treatment and we were given the option to see where the money went. I wonder if the dad is saying this now that he has seen how much money she has. I hope she doesn’t go back home but is still able to mend fences and have a relationship with her parents. Will take a long time though

- - natct said
  - 23 Nov 2018
    7:09 am
I’m not a fan of crowd funding and would never donate to anyone. There are too many taking advantage of it like this.

- - musicmum said
  - 22 Nov 2018
    8:14 pm
Makes you think anyone can do this, get a good income even if it is not true. How can you trust it?

- - rovermum said
  - 22 Nov 2018
    8:11 pm
Wow, crowd funding can be used for anything these days, I’m finding. I guess people get to choose where to put their money and they’re doing it.

- - mom264171 said
  - 22 Nov 2018
    3:57 pm
I’m glad that so many people have supported her with the crowd funding page! I couldn’t imagine disowning my own child under any circumstances.

- - mom241861 said
  - 22 Nov 2018
    10:00 am
Two beautiful young ladies I see in this photo xxxxx

- - ncjmumma said
  - 22 Nov 2018
    7:01 am
This is so sad!! I would never disown my children ever. We do not own them, they’re their own person.

- - mom265671 said
  - 22 Nov 2018
    12:15 am
Seems like the parents saw the large sum donated and got greedy, changing their tone

- - Mum2archer said
  - 21 Nov 2018
    10:07 pm
That’s not how a parent should act. They should be their child’s biggest supporter of any choice they make and be there to support them 100%.

- - becstalou said
  - 21 Nov 2018
    9:39 pm
Poor girl I hope she finds some comfort in the generosity of these strangers.