YouTube is an unmissable – and relatively newer – part of Pop Culture. A good chunk of content creators on YouTube has contributed colossally to accessible, high-quality, effective mass-communication. This mass-communication is characterized by an immeasurable accumulation of subjects. One of the issues this community has played a glorious role in forwarding is the normalization of varying gender identities and sexual orientations, be it through the increasing number of “Coming Out” videos, or more and more openly queer content creators coming into the limelight.
Below is a list of a few queer content creators on YouTube who, through their online presence, for one, are spreading messages of self-acceptance and inspiring hundreds of thousands of people, even millions, to embrace their true selves.
Ingrid Nilsen
Subscriber count: 3.8 million.
Total video views: 294 million.
YouTube: She is a beauty, fashion and lifestyle vlogger. Her channel’s content comprises fashion hauls, travel videos, makeup tutorials, hair tutorials, “Get Ready With Me“s, home decor/home life-focused videos, and much more.
She came out as a lesbian on 9 June 2015 through an emotion-triggering, 19-minute coming-out video which also happens to be her most viewed video with over 13 million views ’til date.
Other projects: Ingrid also works closely with CoverGirl and is the first YouTube personality to become professionally affiliated with the brand.
Connor Franta
Subscriber count: 5 million.
Total video views: 289 million.
YouTube: His channel’s content is characterized by lifestyle-focused vlogs, and inspirational films and comedy skits, the latter being his most popular.
He came out as gay on 8 December 2014. It was incredibly emotional for Connor, as well as his long-time viewers as his coming-out was reflective of the progress he’d made in terms of self-acceptance since way back in June of 2011, Connor had uploaded a video titled “I’m Not Gay“, and had generally been fairly dismissive of the same.
Other projects: Connor supports and works with The Thirst Project, a non-profit initiative geared toward providing safe, clean drinking water to communities around the world. For his 22nd birthday, he launched a fundraising campaign to accumulate money for building wells for people in Swaziland with an initial goal of $120,000, and ended up raising $230,000.
Connor also wrote a memoir titled “A Work In Progress” which sustained a position on The New York Times’ bestsellers’ list for a total of 16 weeks and sold over 200,000 copies.
Aaron & Austin Rhodes
Subscriber count : 443,000.
Total video views: 33 million.
YouTube: Their channel, Rhodes Bros, comprises lifestyle vlogs, comedy skits, style-oriented tutorials and “Tips” videos, challenges, collaborations, and much more.
They received immense recognition after they uploaded a video titled “Twins Come Out To Dad” wherein they shared with their dad they were both gay. The video garnered swift attention, has over 20 million views currently, and led them to The Ellen DeGeneres Show along with their dad.
Other projects: Aaron and Austin are also actors and models. They’re recurrent cast members on the American horror-comedy television series, Scream Queens.
Mark Miller, & Ethan Hethcote
MarkE Miller’s subscriber count: 532,000.
MarkE Miller’s total video views: 65 million.
Ethan Hethcote’s subscriber count: 249,000.
Ethan Hethcote’s total video views: 9.4 million.
YouTube: Mark and Ethan are vloggers and, through personal observation, kick-ass video editors. They’re also a couple. Each of their channels’ content involves day-in-their-life vlogs, and challenges and collaborations.
Other projects: They’re also entrepreneurs who’ve incorporated a phrase they often say, “Everyday’s a great day!“, into their apparel which can be accessed through their collaborative website, Everyday Productions.
Jair Woo
Subscriber count : 244,000.
Total video views : 25 million.
YouTube: His videos are focused on latest fashion tips, personal style, hair tutorials, male grooming, D.I.Y.s, and much more.
He came out to his YouTube audience on 28 January 2015. In the ‘Coming Out’ video, he shares with his viewers how he struggled coming to terms with his sexuality, and how, growing up in a Hispanic-Catholic environment, he used to think he was sinning, as well as how it took him 20 years to fully accept who he really was.
Through a personal perspective, Jair’s coming-out to his YouTube audience is distinctive in the sense that it was positively received by his mostly male audience, so it disregards, in a way, the stereotype of a straight (or seemingly straight) man’s reaction toward another man being gay.
Hannah Hart
Total video views: 210 million.
YouTube: Her channel’s content is mainly characterized by comedy sketches, periodic collaborations with her best friends, Grace Helbig and Mamrie Hart, and her most popular, weekly series, My Drunk Kitchen, wherein she cooks whilst consuming alcohol, and a lot more.
My Drunk Kitchen won her ‘Best Female Performance in a Comedy’ at the 2013 Streamy Awards, and ‘Best Comedy’ at the 2014 Streamy Awards.
Other projects: Amongst her many endeavors (such as her comedy show, No Filter, with her best friends, and her first feature film, Camp Takota) has been her parody self-help book, My Drunk Kitchen: A Guide to Eating, Drinking, and Going with Your Gut, which stayed for over 2 weeks on The New York Times’ bestsellers’ list.
Tyler Oakley
Total video views: 523 million.
YouTube: Tyler, often referred to as “one of the loudest voices on YouTube“, basically holds, in his YouTube channel, a universe of its own. His is one of the most celebrated YouTube channels with a rapidly rising subscriber rate. His content comprises day-in-the-life videos, traveling videos, collaborations, Q&As which, in his style, he calls “Q & Slay“s, and “Fangirling Over My Obsessions” videos wherein he talks about and interviews non-Internet celebrities, such as the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, Ellen DeGeneres, Darren Criss, One Direction, Jessie J, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and so forth.
Other projects: Tyler’s appeared on multiple broadcasting platforms some of which have aired on national television. The Kids’ Choice awards is one of the many pop-culture events he’s contributed to in interviewing various celebrities on the red carpet.
Being the driven LGBTQ+ advocate he is (and being gay himself), he has shown exuberant support for The Trevor Project, an organization that works for the prevention of suicides amongst LGBTQ+ youth. He has been co-hosting TrevorLIVE, the charity’s annual red-carpet event, since 2011. Also, every year on his birthday, Tyler organizes a fundraiser to raise money for the charity and each time, with the help of his followers, manages to surpass the set number.
Gigi Gorgeous
Subscriber count: 2 million.
Total video views: 234 million.
YouTube: Gigi has been known particularly for her public transition from male to female which has been documented on her YouTube channel, prior to which she identified as a homosexual male.
Gigi is one of the “beauty gurus” of YouTube, being a zealous beauty and fashion enthusiast. Monthly favorites, “Story Time” videos, Q&As, lifestyle-related videos constitute her channel’s content. Her YouTube presence has also won her ‘Best Beauty Series’ at the 2015 Streamy Awards.
Other projects: In 2014, Gigi was awarded the Logo TV Trailblazing Social Creator Award for her prominent advocacy on behalf of the LGBTQ+ youth. She has utilized her status to bring awareness to transgender issues, other LGBTQ+ issues, anti-bullying, and much more. She was featured in a montage of transgender celebrities on the ABC 20/20 documentary about Caitlyn Jenner’s transition. She’s also received immense recognition for the work she’s done with Miley Cyrus for the Happy Hippie Foundation, as well as with Kylie Jenner.
Troye Sivan
Total video views: 218 million.
YouTube: Troye’s is the third most subscribed YouTube channel in the whole of Australia and comprises collaborations, comedic vlogs, musical covers, videos on sex education, and behind-the-scenes vlogs.
Troye came out as gay to his YouTube audience on 7 August 2013, and the video ’til date is amongst the most viewed on his channel with over 6 million views. It is in the same video he shares with his viewers he came out to his family on the same date in 2010.
Other projects: Troye is also a singer, songwriter, and actor. He played the character of a young James Howlett (who later came to be known as the Wolverine) in the 2009 X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and also starred in the South-African Spud film-trilogy.
His music career has been blooming flamboyantly. He released his EP, TRXYE, on 15 August 2015, which debuted at No. 1 in over 55 countries. He recently released his second EP, Wild, on 4 September 2015. During the months of September and October, Troye released his music video trilogy, Blue Neighborhood, that carries the storyline of two boys in love, one being Troye himself. Blue Neighborhood is reflective of Troye’s genuine songwriting approach and storytelling prowess. His songs depict the truthfulness in his lyrical approach in the sense that he doesn’t write about girls, romantically, to try to make it consumable for a larger audience. He has been very open about his sexuality and has expressed the same through his musical writings.
His debut studio album is set to release on 4 December 2015.
Joey Graceffa
Subscriber count : 5.3 million.
Total video views: 647 million.
YouTube: Joey’s channel’s content is characterized by daily vlogs, challenges, collaborations, and short films he’s produced or/and directed or/and acted in. His own three short-films as of yet are Haunting Ian, Ethereal, and EON (Chapter 1) which ’til date have been collectively viewed over 2.8 million times. He’s produced a horror web-series titled “Storytellers” with a total of six episodes, having collectively received over 8.1 million views. Also, for playing the character of Hunter Crowley in the same, he won ‘Best Male Actor in a Dramatic Web Series’ at the 2014 Streamy Awards.
He came out as gay on 16 May, 2015, through his music video, titled “DON’T WAIT“, followed by an ending monologue and another video titled “YES I’M GAY“.
Other projects: In 2013, Joey was a contestant on The Amazing Race 22. He’s made appearances in numerous short films, and television and web-series.
One of Joey’s most successful endeavors has been his memoir, “In Real Life: My Journey to a Pixelated World“, which was released on 19 May, 2015, and through which he shared his personal experiences with bullying, his mother’s alcoholism, his brother’s autism, self-acceptance, amongst other topics.
The above-mentioned content creators hold a collective audience of millions and millions of people, and the fact that they’ve utilized this platform to do so much good not only for the online community but good that’s transcended media and national boundaries and cultural constructs speaks volumes. Personally, I don’t know where and who I’d’ve been had it not been for these courageous people and the entire YouTube community. A thank-you will never be enough, but thanking them through this article is the least I can do.