Category: Coming Out Videos

This archive post will cover Ricky Dillon’s video posted on September 7, 2016. If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll know his coming out inspired transgender YouTuber Gigi Gorgeous to come out as a lesbian. His coming out is significant because he was the first major YouTuber to come out as asexual.

Our2ndLife alumnus Ricky Dillon came out as asexual after years of speculation of being gay, bisexual, pansexual etc. What’s interesting about sexual orientation is that people never assume someone is asexual, because most people cannot fathom not having a sex drive. Ricky directly addresses this in his video, saying he’s perfectly content with being alone and that he doesn’t see himself getting married. However, he acknowledges that things can change. This is a key thing to remember as we close this archive.

All of these LGBT+ YouTubers are in their twenties and thirties. They have their whole lives ahead of them. Sexuality is a spectrum and no one is 100% straight or 100% gay. Whatever percentage you are, or whatever number you are on the Kinsey Scale, at the end of the day you’re human. Life happens. Things change. If you are like me and think you’re straight for 17 years and then find out you’re gay at 18, that’s totally okay. If you know you’re bisexual and that’s how you are for the rest of your life, that’s okay too.

A YouTube coming out video is incredible because it is a video documentation of one of the most important events in an LGBT+ person’s life. 10 years from now, a closeted asexual can look back on Ricky Dillon’s video (assuming YouTube is still a viable platform) and be filled with confidence that they are normal and that it is okay to be who they are. The conspiracy theorist, taste-tester, and controversial comedy vlogger Shane Dawson helped me realize who I was. I sincerely hope that my LGBT+ brothers and sisters who read this archive can see nine of the most famous LGBT+ YouTubers and think to themselves: “There are people just like me.” Beyond your screen, there are message boards, support groups, resource guides, and internet personalities who have gone through the pain that you’ve felt, and, after reading this archive, hopefully share the feeling you have now: community.

This archive post will cover MacDoesIt’s video with his mom posted on July 18, 2017. The significance of this video is that the video is told almost entirely from his mom’s perspective, highlighting her acceptance and love for her child. It also puts the other coming outs in perspective. Instead of having an LGBT+ YouTuber talk about the depression they’ve felt during their life, a parent steps in and talks about their unconditional love towards their child.

I decided to switch it up with this post and discuss an internet personality who has always been an out YouTuber. I love this video because MacDoesIt does not change his standard video format at all. This video is just as charming and hilarious as his others. His mom talks about how, during her pregnancy, she would have dreams about homosexuals and thought to herself “I could have a gay child.” This prepared her during Mac’s life for him to come out. She talked to gay men and had conversations with them about how their individual coming outs went. Mac feeds in later, adding that he never was going to have a “coming out”, he simply was going to bring a guy home to his parents because he knew it wasn’t a big deal to them. This video is a perfect example of a beautiful mother-son relationship post-coming out. This video also proves that people who are LGBT+ are born this way. Cue Lady Gaga.

This archive post will cover Gloom’s coming out video posted on July 7, 2018. As opposed to the other creators on this blog, she is the first one to come out as pansexual. The significance of this video is that she uses humor and hindsight to talk about a very hard topic.

Gloom is a gaming YouTuber that, before this blog post, I had never heard of. To find her channel, I had to scroll down dozens of YouTube videos to find her. I realize that I’ve had a “white gay male” bias on this blog and that ends now. Gloom is an out, proud, Asian pansexual who believes that your sexuality shouldn’t matter. What’s remarkable about her is that she has never dated a girl but regardless still knows who she is. She’s saying that you don’t need to date a girl to know that you’re lesbian. You just know. There is no “gay test” that you have to pass.

In my “How Reliable is My Coming Out Video”?” post, I talked about how YouTuber Bobby Burns described how YouTubers can emotionally manipulate their audience for views. In this post, Gloom appears to do none of that: no fake tears, no vocal fry, no forced emotion. She even does her trademark video intro with the high pitch “I’m Gloo-hoom!” It’s just her and the camera and her bright sense of humor. She is simply sharing her story so that her audience will feel more comfortable in their skin. This is how all coming out videos should be.

This archive post will cover Ingrid Nilsen’s video posted on June 9, 2015. Her coming out is currently the 3rd most watched coming out on the platform, sparking a wave of other internet personalities to come out, including Shane Dawson.

Ingrid’s coming out is 19 minutes of her unapologetically telling the world who she is. In her coming out, we see Ingrid’s personality finally come alive. Her “glass wall” has been cracked open. The video is filled with her trademark quirkiness and high-pitched squealing, especially as she says “I’m gay! It feels so good to say that… so good… and I didn’t bring tissues.”

As you may have noticed in my archive, the most-viewed coming outs on YouTube have been posted by predominantly white, cisgender, gay men. Ingrid breaks that stereotype, as she is one of the most popular lesbian creators on the platform.

Ingrid says that her mantra to come out was: “We all deserve our best chance.” Ingrid wants people to know that they deserve their best chance too.

This archive post will cover Gigi Gorgeous’ next coming out as a lesbian in her YouTube video “I’m A Lesbian | Gigi.” Gigi’s coming out on September 14, 2016 marked an instrumental change in the public’s perception of sexualities of transgender people.

In my last post, we talked about the impact of Gigi’s coming out as a transgender woman. No one expected this coming out to follow up. Before this video, I had struggled to understand the dating landscape among transgender people. Do they date only other trans people? Is a transgender man who dates a woman considered gay? Is the woman that dates him considered straight? Gigi, with her second coming out, once again made YouTube history announcing she identified with a second letter in the LGBT alphabet, turning herself into a prime example of intersectionality.

In this video, Gigi talks about how she “built up her life” as a transgender woman who was going to end up with a man. Therefore, her discovery that she was in love with a woman astounded her. She talks about the dangers of identifying yourself too early, saying there’s “no rush” and that she’s 24 and still figuring herself out. She also says to never let anyone tell you what you are because only you know who you are.

Gigi announced on March 8, 2018 that she was engaged to model Nats Getty with an adorable video called “The Proposal | Nats & Gigi.” You can watch this video below:

 

 

 

This archive post will cover Gigi Gorgeous’ coming out as transgender in her YouTube video “I Am Transgender.” Previously known as Greg, Gigi’s coming out on December 16, 2013 made her the first transgender celebrity on the platform.

Arguably one of the greatest transgender icons in the world, Gigi Gorgeous is easily YouTube’s most controversial LGBT personality on the platform, boasting 2.7 million subscribers. Over the years, she has gained criticism for her anti-semitism and for “fame getting to her.” Despite her mixed public image today, Gigi is historically known for documenting her entire transitioning experience on YouTube. Gigi started out posting videos of herself as a gay man doing makeup tutorials to taking us on her journeys into top surgery, facial reconstruction, a feature-lengthed documentary, and even to identifying as a lesbian (which I will cover in the next archive post.) Gigi’s presence online has helped myself and many others understand the struggles of being transgender. Gigi’s confidence as a transgender woman is also remarkable, boldly stating near the end of the video:

“I think that my choice to be a woman makes me more woman than a lot of women out there.”

This archive post will cover Joey Graceffa’s coming out as gay in his YouTube video “YES I’M GAY” published on May 18, 2015.  Joey’s trademark of his videos was always his flamboyance, but without an official coming out many young people still believed that he was straight. The significance of Joey, however, is how he triumphantly turned coming out into an art form.

Joey Graceffa definitely has one of the more interesting coming out stories. After posting some very… suggestive videos for years, he released a music video to an original song called “Don’t Wait” wherein the video he kisses a man. The lyrics go: “Don’t wait for the world to be ready.” This line is obviously an allusion to his homosexuality. His coming out video is in response to the praise the music video received:

“Obviously, this has been taken away from the video, but I’m gay”

He later came out in his book called “Joey Graceffa: In Real Life.” Chapter 14 is titled “Surprise!” and the only two words written on the page are “I’m gay.” Joey posted this video because he didn’t want people to have to buy the book to know about his sexuality.

Like the other coming outs we’ve covered, Joey has inspired his audience too. I will leave you with this comment:

“Joey I have been here since you had around 2,000 subscribers. I have never been more proud of you. I have always seen people harass you and question you about your sexuality and I am just so happy that you can now just shut them all up and be yourself and be the person that inspires so many people every dang day and oh my goodness gracianious I just love you so much Joey! Please never change <3333″

 

This archive post will cover Troye Sivan’s coming out as gay in his YouTube video “Coming out” published on August 7, 2013. Troye was a rising pop star at the time, and this video had the risk of stunting his career. His coming out is significant because he is a celebrity, and perhaps has gotten MORE popular being LGBT+, attaining a queer following.

Like Tom Daley, Troye Sivan has become more of a pop star than an internet personality with songs like “My My My” and “Bloom.” Sivan posted the video “Coming out” onto his YouTube channel in 2013. That was five years ago. Today, the video has 7.9 million views.

Troye posted this video, not just for him to become fully authentic on his channel, but, to also confirm to his audience that it does get better. He also adds it can be great from the beginning! Troye said not a single person has had a problem with his sexuality. He wanted to use his video to help other “14-year-old Troye’s” who may be fear-binge-watching coming out videos just as he did.

“Without [Youtube coming out videos], I don’t know where I’d be.”

This archive post will cover Tom Daley’s coming out as gay in his YouTube video “Tom Daley: Something I want to say…” published on December 2, 2013. His coming out is significant because he is a part of the small group of Olympians who are LGBT+. He also isn’t a traditional YouTuber, but he knew what the value was of coming out using this platform.

Daley’s coming out on 2013 came in response to an interview several months before where he was “misquoted” and left him very upset. He never stated in the video which interview it was, but here’s an interview I found from British news site Mirror that seemed to line up:

Olympic diving hunk Tom Daley insists he is NOT gay – and says he doesn’t care if people think he is.

Daley’s coming out is significant because he is not known for being an “internet personality.” Rather than getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for a coming out interview, Daley used YouTube to prevent his words from getting twisted, and, to simply be authentic for once. Daley’s video is a prime example of how intimate and personal these videos can be. After all, this was shot on his smartphone on his futon in front of his British flag pillows. Can’t get much more real than that.

This archive post will cover Shane Dawson’s coming out as bisexual in his YouTube video “I’m Bisexual” published on July 7, 2015. His coming out is significant because, while his sexuality was certainly questioned by fans, he was in a long-term relationship with another YouTuber named Lisa. Shane reveals in the video that they’ve broken up and had to fake being in a relationship for the fans, highlighting the pressures of being a YouTuber.

Shane’s coming out is unedited, shot on Photo Booth, and is a perfect start to this archive because there are no bells and whistles to this video. No fancy lighting. It’s just him and the camera being honest.

His purpose in uploading this video was to help his viewers who could be experiencing the same thing. To me, Shane Dawson’s coming out goes down as one of the most significant ones on YouTube. Actually, the reason why I chose this to be my first archive post is that this is the video that brought me closer to understanding my own sexuality. I saw this video at a time where I identified as straight, but when I watched the video he started saying stuff that really hit home for me. Shane talks about how his girlfriend was accepting of his bisexuality and how his mom, a woman of God, accepted him. As a questioning man in 2015, that stayed with me and gave me hope should I ever come out.