Taking to YouTube is now one of the best ways for stars to talk directly to their fans, especially about painful or personal experience. Their stories are told in their own voice and there’s no distortion of the truth.
These awesome people made the decision to come out on their own terms and we applaud them.
Matt And Blue, Actor and Musician
226,415
Despite coming out through a Twitter post back in 2013, Matt Dallas and his partner Blue Hamilton decided to make a coming out video to talk about the how’s, the why’s and the everything’s… Super cute and really fun.
George Shelley, Union J Singer
525,096 views
Union J singer George Shelley, posted a video telling his fans he had something he wanted to talk about. In his video he says that he’s attracted to men and women and that labels like gay or bi were “old fashioned”.
Billy Gillman, Singer
928,777 views
Just days after fellow country singer Ty Herndon came out, Billy Gillman made this emotional YouTube video. In the five and a half minute video the vocalist talked about life with his partner and his difficultly with major record labels wanting to re-sign him, despite selling 5 million records.
Lucas Cruickshank, YouTuber
4,914,186 views
In possibly the most fun coming out video Lucas literally burst out of the closet and into the open after one fan asked the simple question “are you gay”.
Troye Sivan, X Men Actor turned singer
6,436,896 views
X Men actor Troye came out on YouTube at the age of 18 in 2013. In his emotional video he said,
“I’m terrified. I know that some people are going to have a problem with this. This could kind of change everything for me, but it shouldn’t have to. And that’s why I’m making this video, and that’s why I think it’s important for people to make these kinds of videos.”
Shane Dawson, YouTuber
7,264,707 views
In 2015 Shane Dawson came out as bisexual in a video that has now been seen over 7 million times. He said, emotionally,
“This is a really hard video to make. I’m really scared… I never thought I would be making this, ever. I woke up this morning and I just had to.
“I’m making this video because I feel like it could help a lot of people. Over the last year, I’ve been extremely sexually confused.
“I always wished that I was gay, that I was just 100 percent gay. It would be a lot easier to be accepted by people… but I’m not.
Joey Graceffa, YouTuber
6,734,448 views
Gorgeous Joey came out on YouTube as gay in 2015. He went on to release a music video which featured a pretty hot, non heteronormative story line of princes falling in love with each other.
Connor Franta, YouTuber,
10, 355,416 views
Connor Franta’s coming out video made mainstream news. In a video simply named “Coming Out” the YouTuber told his 3.6 subscribers that he was gay, saying,
“I’m sitting here with no script, no plan, no fancy editing, and I’m just gonna be really honest,”
Tom Daley, Diver,
11,761, 500 views
The Olympic champion diver took to YouTube at the end of 2013 to say that he was in a relationship with a man. He described the posting of the video as a “hard decision to make” but ultimately he wanted his fans to hear it directly from him.
Ingrid Nilsen, YouTuber.
14, 1999,691
Ingrid came out as gay in 2015 in a highly emotional video and is to date the second most viewed coming out YouTube video, which might be down to the fact that the vlogger has nearly 4 million subscribers.
The Rhodes Bros
21, 773,092 views
Reaching out far ahead of any other YouTube coming out video is the
Rhodes’ twins coming out as gay to their father on the phone. The video had huge media pick up which help ratchet the views to over 21 million.
This article was first published in Feb 2016
