The mother of Jonah Mowry, the gay 14-year-old who garnered national attention when he spoke about his anguish over bullies, said her son has been "uplifted" by support online. "I'm thankful," Peggy Sue Mowry told ABC News. "There are a lot of people that are giving their warm wishes and uplifting Jonah, and I think that's good." But Mowry also said the family was disheartened by other vile comments that had been posted recently online. "He is sick over all the horrible posts and so are we ... it is very overwhelming," said his mother, a 52-year-old hairdresser from Lake Forest, California. Jonah's parents helped him craft a response to deal with rumours that he was a fake. His father is Kevin Mowry, a music instructor technician at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California. The teen explained that he had made the dark video at 4:00 am just before starting school in the fall. "I was dreading going back to school and I had not come out to my family yet," he said. "Only my closest friends knew. I didn't know how to say what I needed to say. All I could think about were all the bad things that had been happening at school last year, every year for that matter." He said his friends were supportive and he thought the video would help others. "It had to be done," his mother told ABC. "So after school we had him sit down and compose it." Jonah's YouTube video went viral this week and some online accused the teen of being a "fraud," and looking for publicity. "I'm disappointed that somebody could look at the first video and then look at the second and think it's a lie," said his mother. "He's a child. He's a 14-year-old boy. He's very young,” adding, "First and foremost, I am proud of the responses we've gotten from people. I'm disappointed that people would question whether it's "true." Jonah posted two YouTube videos. One, below, last August, was a wrenching account of his cutting injuries as a victim of school bullies.
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