The year 2015 may have seemed to have raced by with all your fitness-related New Years resolutions flushing themselves down the toilet, but it was a huge, nay MASSIVE year for the online LGBTQ community.
On June 9th 2015, American YouTube sensation Ingrid Nilsen uploaded a video titled Something I Want You To Know (I’m Gay) on her channel. “I want to live my life unapologetically because I am proud of who I am and I am not going to apologise for who I am anymore,” she said in closing. “This is the life that I have always lived in my head and now it’s real.” The video, which came as a surprise to her 3.7 million subscribers, garnered 2 million views in less than 24 hours.
The 26-year-old then started collaborating with Tyler Oakley, who is known as the ‘head gay’ on YouTube. “I came out when I was like 13 and the Internet didn’t exist yet. So when I started YouTube when I was 18, I was very comfortable with it. I have never made a coming out video, so there’s still some confusion. I am, in fact, gay.” Oakley’s sexuality is a huge part of his videos and his 7.69 million subscribers support him vehemently.
Nilsen has thereafter begun dating fellow YouTuber Hannah Hart, who in the October issue of the American magazine DIVA says, “We’ve actually been friends for a couple of years and then... circumstances kind of aligned.” YouTube aside, model Lily-Rose Depp, the 16-year-old daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis took to Instagram to make a point about her sexual orientation, calling herself ‘sexually fluid’.
On the topic of making your LGBTQ debut, queer feminist activist Pramada Menon has some advice, “People should come out when they are most comfortable with it, since it’s your life that will be discussed. It’s tough coming out for anyone if there isn’t a supportive environment around, that can take what you have said and nurture it – and not turn it into a joke.”
Maybe young Indians need a role model like Joey Graceffa, a YouTuber who recently released his first book In Real Life – My Journey to a Pixelated World. In his book, or more specifically in Chapter 14, the 24-year-old proclaims, “I’m gay!” and talks about being bullied as a child for being too feminine.
— Nimisha Dean
