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Congratulations to YouTube star Joey Graceffa for having the courage to come out and make his voice heard in such a creative way!
Joey Graceffa has come out as gay in his new music video, and it’s nothing short of a fairy tale.
On May 16, the YouTube star released the video for “Don’t Wait,“ which flashes between reality and a magical world. The video features goblins, a witch and, of course, a prince who turns out to be Graceffa’s love interest. At the end, the two share a happily-ever-after kiss in the woods.
Wait he needed to come out? Like. It wasn’t obvious? I feel like this is a “water is wet” post.
I’m tired of all of this shit-talking about people coming out when they are already perceived to be gay.
First of all, you shouldn’t assume anyone’s sexuality before they tell you what it is themselves, so thinking that “he’s obviously gay” is already problematic, but it’s also completely false.
Furthermore, suggesting that something about his character makes him “obviously gay” is saying that every gay falls into the same stereotypes, and if anyone has a certain set of qualities, they must be gay. By saying anyone is obviously gay based on their character, you are providing an ignorant cishet majority with ammunition to determine the sexuality of others. Basically, you are propagating the next generation’s witch-hunt.I do understand that coming out is not what it used to be, but it is still very important. Coming out used to be a death sentence, and though it still is in many parts of the world, at least in westernized countries it is becoming a more celebrated event.
However, celebrating coming out does not change the symbolism of it. On an individual scale, coming out takes a lot of courage from an individual, so don’t belittle someone coming out because it really is a game-changer in their life. They are opening themselves up to scrutiny, and they are now agreeing to live their life as if it were a topic for debate; they are saying this is the last time they will hide from and denounce this very important part of themselves. This is an acceptance of self, no longer a denial.
On a larger scale, the fact that we even still have a “coming out process/scenario” is a sign that we still live in a heteronormative society, where everyone is assumed “innocent until proven guilty”, where to be gay is to be guilty. Even if a small majority already assumed Graceffa’s sexuality was gay, him coming out is a sign, not that we are progressive and accepting by any means, but rather that a larger majority is determined to assume he is straight until he confesses otherwise, like straight is some sort of default setting for sexuality, or the normal sexuality.I don’t know when, but there will come a time when we don’t feel a need to label someone by their sexuality. (We will realize that when we are describing someone, identifying them as gay literally means nothing and is helpless.) We will no longer be surprised by anyone’s sexual/romantic actions because we stopped assuming what sexuality is. (This also means we will stop talking about the potential sexuality of individuals postmortem.) In that time, coming out will no longer exist, and perhaps we can laugh at what a silly notion it is to assume someone’s sexuality at all, and maybe cry over how important it actually was to a population at one point.
I’ve done the math; I’ll be dead before this happens, and I’m really sad about that.
(via boycharm)
