These emotional coming out vids are giving us all the feels.
Coming out is never easy, and to do it on camera requires a special type of bravery. These 12 coming out videos are some of our all-time favorites. Check them out, and you just might be inspired to make one of your own!
1. Aaron & Austin Rhodes: “I Love You Both. That’ll Never Change”
Prepare for the feels! Austin and Aaron Rhodes are twin brothers who share a YouTube channel, and both identify as gay. In what turns out to be the highest viewed video on this list, the two decide it’s time to call up their father and come out – seeing as he is the last family member to know. You can’t help but feel anxious and nervous for these brothers as you watch them muster up the courage to share their truths with their father. It all becomes worthwhile when you see their father’s reaction.
2. Elliot Page: "We deserve to experience love fully, equally, without shame and without compromise”
In what may be one of the most iconic and influential coming out videos yet, actor Elliot Pae comes out during a speech at a Human Rights Campaign event in February of 2014. Elliot engages the audience and viewer with his testimony of strength, and expressions a desire to no longer “lie by omission.”
4. Ingrid Nilsen: “I want you to know, I’m gay”
In this video, you almost can’t help but be moved by Ingrid’s fearlessness. It’s therapeutic watching as the weight fall off of her shoulders as she declares who she is.
5. Gigi Gorgeous: “Never accept anything less than what you see in your heart”
YouTube staple Gigi Gorgeous has grown up quite a bit over the years. As such a huge part the YouTube community, it’s fair to say Gigi deserves a place on this list. In this video, Gigi fights off tears as she shares a secret that she has carried with her for such a long time. She manages to turn the video into a moment of reflection and inspiration for viewers, encouraging others to live their own best life, whatever that may be.
6. Joey Graceffa: “Be proud and open with who you are, and show people that it's okay to be gay”
Joey Graceffa, a vocalist and YouTube personality, created this video after releasing a music video about two male lovers. The video encouraged others around the world to come out to their loved ones and share their experiences doing so.
7. Simplynessa15: “I just wish I would have accepted it earlier”
Nessa shares the complexities of being bisexual and her struggle to come to terms with her identity. By the end of the video, Nessa makes it clear that her sexuality is not an issue for her, so anyone who does have a problem with it needs to come to terms with that on their own.
8. WhySoShayD: “I’ve been very afraid to do this for a very long time… but the time has come”
Shay decides to call up her Christian mother and confess that she is a lesbian. It takes her a few tries to say what she needs to say, but when she does her mother’s reaction is gold.
9. Gigi Gorgeous: “It’s your life, you get to live it however you want to live it”
On the list again, Gigi now shares her experience being sexually fluid and dating another woman. She addresses people’s need for labels and how labels can damaging to someone who is trying to find their way. Once again, she uses her platform to encourage people to live their life how they see fit.
10. The Boyfriend Channel: “I want to tell you something”
In this live video, Taylor sits down his dad and tells him what something he's wanted to tell him for a long time. His dad’s reaction isn’t the best, but this video stands out because it shows that even though coming out can be very difficult, you will get through it.
11. Riyadh K: “You can say anything to me. I love you”
Riyadh sits in a hotel room with his parents as they reminisce on his coming out to them. It’s clear the family has grown tighter since his coming out. The video is filled with nothing but love and support. There’s even a surprise confession from his dad that sends both Riyadh, his mother and the viewer into a shock.
12. Benton: “I could not experience moments the way that I do now”
What started off as a class project on ‘Inspiration’ turned into a viral video of a student coming out as transgender.
Troye Sivan
Troye Sivan is now an out icon, but there was a time when he was scared to share his truth. But in 2013 he opened up about his sexuality in this moving video. "This is probably the most nervous I've ever been in my whole life, he begins sharing that he told his family first but now he's telling the world, "I'm gay."
Eugene Lee Yang
Coming out videos do not come any more iconic than when Try Guys star Eugene Lee Yang dropped this music video. The production value!
As Yang told PRIDE at the time, "I finally felt safe... I feel like every queer person has the moment where they are elegantly perfecting the craft of withholding just enough, and I realized I was doing that with the audience."
Hannah Hart
Hannah Hart began her YouTube journey with viral cooking series called "My Drunk Kitchen." But in 2012 she opened up and shared her truth in hopes that it would open the hearts and minds of more people who had already come to love her as a YouTube personality.
Tom Daley
Today Olympian diver Tom Daley is out and proud but that journey all began in 2013 when he came out on YouTube.
"In an ideal world, I wouldn't be doing this video because it shouldn't matter," said Daley who said that in the past he had avoided answering questions about who he was dating in interviews but now he was done with that because he met someone special. "they make me feel so happy, so safe, and everything just feels great, and, well, that someone is a guy," he revealed.
Mistress Isabelle Brooks is known for being shady and “cutting up” with other RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni… even though she’s gotten a lot of hatred from a certain segment of the fandom since appearing in season 15 and going on to be a finalist.
While Mistress has continued to rise above the drama and the shenanigans from fans on social media, she’s taken the time to share a little bit of vulnerability and have some #RealTalk on the timeline this week.
“I don’t ever come on here with real sh*t, and I like to use my platform to be light-hearted and fun,” Mistress wrote in an X post. “I’ve been really going through some sh*t, and I have been beyond depressed and not myself. So I’m sorry if I’ve let some of y’all down with not going live or posting as much.”
She continued, “I see the comments and messages. I know y’all want more content and videos… things like that require me being my authentic funny self & that’s just been out of reach at the moment. I’m coming back stronger than ever, and I’m so excited for the future. I love y’all so much.”
In recent weeks, we’ve seen Mistress cohosting an episode of Sibling Rivalry with Bob The Drag Queen (with whom she had a funny and fake feud) and launching her very own YouTube channel (@mistressisabellebrooks) with guests like Plane Jane and Dawn. However, it seems like something else is going on in her life — prompting the X posts she shared on Tuesday, Feb. 27.
While it’s not exactly clear what’s going on in Mistress’ life at the moment, we obviously respect her privacy. This could be a personal matter or just something that she’d rather not share with the entire world. But given how many times her Instagram account was taken down in 2023 by fans targeting her, we do hope that this isn’t yet another incident related to social media trolls.
We’re always rooting for Mistress and appreciate how funny she can be at all times, but it’s also important to stand by our faves when they’re not feeling their best and need a second to get back up.
Sending your way all of our love, M.I.B.!
RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 airs every Friday on MTV.
Once a juggernaut of the YouTube beauty influencer era, James Charles' fame nearly went up in smoke after he was accused of "grooming" underage boys. Now, the beauty guru is attempting to rebrand himself in the most unexpected way possible.
Charles, who built his entire career on his skills as a makeup artist, released his debut single, "Call Me Back," today, and the internet has thoughts.
Back in 2021, Charles was canceled after more than 15 boys and men accused him of inappropriate behavior and "grooming" underage boys he was talking to on Snapchat. After the accusations surfaced, he made a YouTube video apologizing for speaking to 16-year-olds but claimed he didn't know they weren't 18.
The beauty guru relaunched his career on TikTok last year — where he has since accumulated 38.5 million followers — and now he's trying to increase his popularity by trying his hand at being a pop star, we guess?
But trust the internet not to let anyone forget his alleged creepy behavior. While some people took to X (formerly Twitter) to talk about Charles' surprisingly good vocals, most are roasting him for thinking that a boring, mid song could somehow erase the internet's collective memory of what he did.
Spoiler alert: You can't. Nothing is ever really dead and buried on the internet.
"a lot of yall seem to have forgotten james charles has literally texted underaged boys…," one person posted on X.
"James Charles released a shitty song like we forgot he was sexting minors," another person wrote.
a lot of yall seem to have forgotten james charles has literally texted underaged boys… pic.twitter.com/h47yi1Fxn7
The new track is about liking someone more than they like you and waiting by the phone for them to call you back. It might not have been the best idea to make your debut song about being obsessed with someone who ghosts you when you were accused of sending inappropriate messages to underage teen boys.
"That minor is not gonna call you back Charles," someone quipped on X.
Usually, musicians tease an upcoming single for weeks or months ahead of time, but Charles kept this under wraps before dropping it online with little fanfare other than posting the video on social media. Perhaps to avoid being roasted before anyone had even heard the song.
"SURPRISE… My first ever song, CALL ME BACK is now streaming on all platforms," Charles wrote on Instagram to announce the release of his single. "The song is all about learning how to find closure within getting ghosted, something I struggled with for a very long time. I've been keeping this secret for more than a year now… I hope you hear how much this project means to me, and I hope you love it as much as I do. Talk soon."
Although he only released the track about an hour ago at the time of writing this article, it already has more than 84,000 views on TikTok, proving that while the internet has a long memory, being canceled is pretty meaningless.
Over the years, several queens have said that the key to longevity post-RuPaul’s Drag Race is finding your own audience and building a platform for yourself. While that is easier said than done, many former contestants have managed to find incredible success in the fashion industry, as touring performers, starting their own businesses, and creating content for YouTube.
At this point in time, it’s virtually impossible to navigate YouTube without seeing content created by a wide variety of drag performers – many of whom have competed on Drag Race. And to that, we say, “Thank gawd!” With so many incredible drag entertainers creating content, it’s time to compile a list of Drag Race alumni who are truly conquering YouTube.
Scroll through to check out some of the RuPaul’s Drag Race queens who are incredibly successful on YouTube.
Delta Work
Delta Work's former podcast with Raja, Very That, has evolved into the huge phenomenon known as Very Delta – a podcast and digital talk show that regularly accumulates hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. Without a doubt, Very Delta is one of the most essential and entertaining talk shows of our time... point blank period!
Willam & Alaska (MOM Podcasts)
The Very Delta series is produced by Moguls of Media (MOM), an entertainment conglomerate founded by Willam and Alaska. Besides cohosting the Race Chaser podcast, Willam and Alaska are also executive producers of all shows under the MOM umbrella.
Individually, these Drag Race superstars have also found a lot of success on YouTube. Willam's channel has over 935,000 subscribers, and Alaska's channel has surpassed 418,000 subscribers as of this writing.
Bob The Drag Queen & Monét X Change (Sibling Rivalry)
Bob The Drag Queen and Monét X Change have created the massive Sibling Rivalry empire on YouTube and Patreon, which has even led to a joint tour for these two Drag Race winners. On YouTube, the official Sibling Rivalry channel currently has 207,000 subscribers.
It is also worth noting that Bob is massive on her standalone YouTube channel (523,000 subscribers as of this writing). Bob's channel consists of her original music videos, tutorials, Purse First Impressions videos, interviews, and episodes of Town Hall: A Black Podcast alongside Peppermint.
Trixie Mattel & Katya
Between digital shows like UNHhhh (produced by WOW Presents Plus) and I Like To Watch (produced by Netflix), Trixie Mattel and Katya have accumulated millions and millions of views on their videos shared on YouTube. In fact, some of their most popular videos have reached over 7 million views each.
Trixie is also a YouTube legend with her standalone YouTube channel, which has 1.94 million views right now. On the channel, Trixie shares her music videos, Trixie Cosmetics announcements and tutorials, interviews, collabs, and even personal vlogs from time to time.
Yuhua Hamasaki
Yuhua Hamasaki has created a huge platform for herself on YouTube through the Bootleg Opinions series of videos, where she reviews different episodes of RuPaul's Drag Race along with special guests. As of this writing, Yuhua's YouTube channel has over 67,000 subscribers.
Maddy Morphosis
One of the most recent Drag Race queens to conquer YouTube is Maddy Morphosis, who has already reached 89,600 subscribers on her channel. All of this success is thanks to Maddy's interview series, Give It to Me Straight, where she features different drag entertainers and interviews them with her straight-to-the-point (pun intended) sense of humor.
Gottmik & Violet Chachki
Despite also being a somewhat new addition to YouTube, Gottmik and Violet Chachki’s NoGorge channel has already surpassed 118,000 subscribers. There's an undeniable chemistry between these two BFFs, who deliver on comedy, fashion lewks, and being their true unfiltered selves.
Jaymes Mansfield
With 191,000 subscribers, Jaymes Mansfield's YouTube channel is another huge success story for a Drag Race queen. While her channel had already been growing over the years since Jaymes appeared in season nine, she welcomed even more subscribers after competing on All Stars 8.
Jan
Jan is also among the new batch of Drag Race queens who are podcasting and creating content for YouTube and Patreon. Besides the recent talk-show-style episodes from her Unpacked podcast series, Jan had already grown her YouTube channel with music videos shared after her reality TV debut on Drag Race season 12. Currently, Jan's channel has over 41,000 subscribers – and nothing's going to stop this queen from pushing farther into the mainstream than any queen before!
Pearl
Right now, Pearl's YouTube channel has a whopping 288,000 subscribers. Even though she has seemingly taken a break from posting new content, Pearl's vlogs, tutorials, and sketches have been very popular among Drag Race fans over the years.
