YouTube icon Joey Graceffa says Troye Sivan and Connor Franta helped him come out
Joey Graceffa (Getty Images)
Joey Graceffa has revealed how fellow YouTubers Troye Sivan and Connor Franta gave him the courage to come out.
Speaking on the We Need To Talk podcast, the YouTube star reflected on the wave of coming-out videos that defined the platform in the mid-2010s, and the part other creators played in his own journey.
“I think what ultimately gave me the courage was other YouTubers coming out and seeing their response to their coming out, like Troye Sivan, Connor Franta,” he said.
Graceffa decided his own announcement would be a spectacle. “There was a time where coming out videos were a thing. It’s not anymore. I was like, ‘You know what? I need a one up these gays,'” he said.
“So I was like, ‘I’m not just going to do a sit down coming out video. I’m going to make it a production.'”
The result was his 2015 music video “Don’t Wait”, which also featured his then-boyfriend Daniel Preda.
“I made a like $60,000 music video and flew out to Montana, shot this very whimsical, magical, essentially story of my life through fiction and nonfiction,” he said. “I think it has like 45million views now. So it was a hit. It was a moment.”
He also spoke candidly about the internal struggle that preceded it.
“I think the first and major one is the internalised homophobia. That was the biggest hurdle to get over, was finally accepting that I was gay,” he said.
“I just remember taking ‘Am I gay?’ quizzes really to tell me if I was gay or not, and if it said I was, I would take it again and be like, no, I’m not b****.”
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