An emotional video showing a teenage student’s distress after years of homophobic bullying has prompted hundreds of messages of global concern and support for him.

“You’re loved.” “We support you.” “It gets better.” “Stay strong.” These are just a few of the encouraging comments flooding in for Jonah Mowry.

As word spreads about the video this week, out gay ex-Star Trek actor George Takei and American author Anne Rice – who is the mother of a gay son – have been among several notables urging people to take a look and spread the word.

Jonah’s video message is shown below:

A recent flurry of interest in the video, which was uploaded back in August, prompted Jonah to update concerned viewers this weekend on how he’s doing, and to verify the clip’s authenticity.

“I would just like to say thankyou for everyone’s love and support – it really means a lot,” he says.

Touched by Jonah’s video? You can join the ‘Jonah Mowry we support you’ Facebook page here.