Hannah Hart Opens Up About Her Father's Refusal to Attend Her Wedding

Getting married is supposed to be one of the happiest occasions of a person’s life. But even in places where same-sex marriage is legal, for LGBTQ people, wedding celebrations can easily become a reminder of the people close to them who have rejected them simply because of who they love.

YouTuber Hannah Hart, the perpetually positive creator of My Drunk Kitchen, announced her engagement to Ella Mielniczenko back in 2018. After two years, they’re in the final stages of wedding planning and, in an effort to “feel comfortable posting all the happy wedding content again,” Hart decided to open up to her viewers about the most difficult part of the whole process — that her father refuses to come to her wedding.

Hart’s father is a Jehovah’s Witness, which she classifies as “the kind of organization that consumes your entire life and controls all your relationships.” The group opposes LGBTQ rights and marriage equality, and Hart says she knew from the start that her father and stepmother wouldn’t end up coming to her wedding.

“I’m really surprised that I’m sad that my dad’s not coming to my wedding. I’m really, really taken aback. I can’t believe I care. Why do I care? It shouldn’t matter. Of course he’s not going to the wedding,” she says in the video.

But just because you know something to be true doesn’t mean it doesn’t sting.

“In the course of my life, the Witnesses have always been more important than me. So why am I surprised that the Witnesses are more important than me again here?” she wonders. “It sucks.”

The whole video serves as a stark reminder that no matter who you are or how far the world comes in regards to LGBTQ acceptance, there will always be some people who choose discrimination over loving and supporting the people they’re meant to love and support. Pretending discrimination doesn’t happen, or protecting those who do it in quiet, only serves to enable them.

And that’s why Hart finally decided to open up about her relationship with her father, knowing that others may well be struggling with an unaccepting family member the way she is.

“You don’t protect families by keeping secrets. And I’ve been keeping secret my opinion of the Jehovah’s Witnesses out of fear of losing my relationship with my father, out of fear of becoming what they call an apostate,” she said.

“There’s nothing I want more than a relationship with my dad. But I can’t pretend that this choice is something that I respect."