Last month we published here on Bossy the translation of Shane Dawson’s beautiful speech, an important Californian YouTuber (we are talking about more or less 5,467,963 subscribers), who made a video in which he announced his bisexuality. But fortunately, he’s not the only one who had the courage (because yes, we still need to talk about courage, unfortunately) to post a video like this: the YouTube community, which is constantly growing and constantly changing, is certainly more open to this than any other type of media. More than television, and most certainly more than Hollywood, where in some ways they seem to be so many light years behind that they find themselves basically on Pluto. YouTube embraces change, it spurs it and it supports it instead of leaving it behind the scenes, or simply in the background. And therefore on YouTube we find people like Hannah Hart or Tyler Oakley, out and proud, a myriad of allies and many videos that are a real victory for the community.
Now, listing all of them would be impossible, and so I based myself on my personal experience of someone who spends an embarrassing number of hours watching videos on YouTube. I’m not necessarily a big fan of YouTubers, I don’t follow really follow them outside of their channel, but I appreciate watching videos of a lot of people around the world, and in this article I gathered my five favourite rainbow moments. Enjoy!
1. Ingrid Nielsen’s coming out
I have to admit it: I love watching videos of beauty gurus. I then do a very poor job when it comes to following their advice, but let’s draw a line here as this is not today’s topic. So, Ingrid Nilsen is currently one of the most famous gurus, with more than 3 million subscribers and almost 500 videos to this day. Adorable, big fan of Game of Thrones, she’s the classic role model for all the girls who have access to the Internet. And she’s lesbian.
This year, on the 9 June, she in fact posted a video titled ‘Something I Want You To Know’, a long 20-minute monologue in which she declared her homosexuality, talking about how hard it was for her to realise it and reach a stage where she was confident enough to live freely. And I cried.
The video sparked a massive positive wave, Ingrid received support, praise and love from fellow YouTubers and her fans, at VidCon this year she was invited to take part in a panel precisely on LGBTQ+ issues and I think that her video is extraordinary for this reason: there aren’t many beauty gurus who stand out from the status quo. Not that there is anything wrong with the ‘classic’ beauty guru, but maybe it’s not as popular, or it’s not well accepted, preferring to have a girl instead of a boy – and Ingrid broke through this barrier without hesitating, writing in the description box of the video “We all deserve our best chance”. Wonderful.
2. Connor Franta’s coming out
Oh Connor. Alright, he’s one of my favourite YouTubers ever and, even though I might be a bit biased, his coming out video is just as important as Ingrid’s, because it’s exactly the other side of the coin. I don’t know if you’ve ever hear of a Directioner discussing the possibility of Harry Styles being gay, but the issue can be easily transferred to YouTubers who are males and basically good looking: when there is a generally female fan base, coming out can be a risk, essentially because “if they can’t think anymore of marrying you, then they will unsubscribe”. This is a pretty stupid argument because, the female fan base is not just a herd of madwomen who only think about a love story with their favourite actor/singer/anything, or so I believe. But go ahead and explain this to all the record labels and various PR agencies.
For a while, even Connor Franta thought so, so much that in 2011 he posted a video titled ‘I’m Not Gay’. But after his audience increased and having become one of the most famous YouTubers, at least in the English-speaking world, he posted another video in December 2014, this time titled ‘Coming Out’. I cried for this one too. To this day, there have been around 9 million views and his subscribers haven’t decreased at all, on the contrary – they are about to reach 5 million. So maybe managers should have a look on YouTube and realise that, just as Connor wrote in the description box, “this doesn’t change anything”.
3. Ally Hills and the Coming Out Song
Ally Hills, out and proud lesbian since she started her YouTube channel, might not have the same number of subscribers as Ingrid Nielsen or Connor Franta, but she has a song. ‘The Official Coming Out Song’, a music video that’s halfway between comedy and actual activism. Uploaded in February 2015, it’s the video through which I discovered her and through which I adored her right away. And of course it’s a great way to show friends and family that gay is okay.
4. Joey Graceffa and the coming out musical
Joey Graceffa, American, is another one of the most famous YouTubers among a relatively young audience. Just like Connor Franta, he waited for quite a long time before posting his coming out video, but when he did, he made sure it was as original as possible.
His ‘Don’t Wait’ is the video for a song he wrote himself: to interpret it, it’s him and another guy dressed up as two princes in a sort-of medieval forest (the kind of medieval of Princess Bride or Once Upon A Time). The video has almost 10 million views and, although he made another video where he explains himself and clarifies everything, the first video really does speak for itself.
5. The reaction videos of the FineBros
For me, no speech on YouTube can be truly complete without the FineBros, two brothers with a channel of over 12 million subscribers. The two of them produce a lot of content for their channel, even though their most famous series are four: Teens React, Kids React, Elders React and YouTubers React. Very week, a group of teenagers, kids, elders and YouTubers react to pretty much anything (videos, films, TV series, songs, objects…). It’s an interesting way to see how the common mentality differs and how certain groups of people see the world. I, personally, love them. In our discussion, two specific videos stand out.
The first one being ‘Kids React to Gay Marriage Ruling’, which proves once more that it’s definitely not the kids who have a problem with gay marriage. And the second one is ‘Teens React to Caitlyn Jenner’, where we truly understand how transsexual rights are the next big fight for the community.
This journey through the rainbow side of YouTube is now over – let us know what your favourite videos are! And for now, keep spreading the love.
