YouTube Star Connor Franta Comes Out As Gay In Tearful, Emotional Video
YouTube star Connor Franta took a bold step today, coming out to his 3.6 million subscribers and 2.3 million Twitter followers in a teary-eyed 6-minute clip.
"I'm just gonna be really honest," the 22-year-old Internet star begins. "2014 is the year I've accepted who I am and become truly happy with that person."
Connor shares his journeyed story of coming to terms with his own sexuality and the struggle of growing up in a small midwest town without any gay peers.
"Growing up, I always knew I was a little bit different than everyone else," Connor shares, revealing his pivotal moment came at 12 years old. "For some reason, in my seventh grade year, I have this thought in the back of my head: 'What if I'm gay?' "
The frightened pre-teen grew overwhelmed with terror and immediately worked to suppress the thought, going on to date girls in high school despite "feeling nothing" in his relationships.
"I felt so isolated," Connor says. He kept his thoughts buried for nearly a decade until his sophomore year in college when depression began to overtake his mind.
It was then, in the thickness of his depression, that Franta forced himself in front of a mirror to admit the very idea he concealed all his life.
"I just tried to say it... but, I couldn't say it. Like, I wasn't capable of saying it. My mouth could not utter those words," Connor says. "Until, one day, I did. And I felt a mixture of every emotion possible.
Connor's renewed sense of self only grew with the acceptance of his closest friends and family members. The once-frightened "small town" teenager was astonished by his network's "no big deal" reaction to his sexuality.
"This is just one little part of who I am. I'm not going to let my sexuality define or confine me. It's part of me, not all of me," Franta says.
The Internet superstar hopes for one major outcome with his public revelation, and that is for no one to fear being themselves.
"Race, gender religion, sexuality... We are all people, and that's it. We're all people, we're all equal," the teary-eyed vlogger says. "I don't want anyone to be afraid. I don't anyone to hold back who they are."
