A gay man has opened up about his coming out video that went viral
A video from a hidden camera that captured the moment a teenager came out to his mother recently went viral online and now the man has opened up about it.
Matthew Christian decided to put his webcam on record when he sat his mother down to come out to her as gay when he was 19, and it caught a beautiful moment between the mother and son duo.
Christian shared the video on YouTube two years ago and the video has been seen millions of times.
Speaking to PinkNews, he explained that the attention was “overwhelming”, but that he hoped it would help give other LGBT youth the courage to come out.
“Before coming out I turned to YouTube and sitcoms looking for others’ coming out experiences. I was hoping to get an idea of what I might be able to expect when coming out.
“In the process of discovering others’ stories, I ended up finding the confidence I needed to come out. I posted my coming out experience hoping to give others the same confidence that I needed.”
Christian, who works in the local Emergency Department and hopes to soon go to medical school, explained that since the video went viral he has received hundreds of messages from people sharing their own stories with him.
He said: I have received messages from people all over the world telling me their stories and what my video has meant to them. So while the response has been a lot to take in, knowing that the video has reached so many people and achieved what I was hoping it would, has made it all worth it.”
The graduate, who has two degrees in Psychology and Biology, explained that he was scared to come out to his family but he knew that they would be accepting.
He said: “I was terrified. Although I knew how sweet and loving my mom was, I still held in the back of my mind all of those horror stories of people being disowned after coming out.
“I was sitting at the kitchen table trying to study, but all I could think of was this secret I had been holding onto. That’s when I knew it was time. I turned on my webcam and told my mom I needed to talk to her about something,” he added.
Although it wasn’t caught on camera, he told his Dad half an hour after coming out to his mum, and said that both of their responses were “amazing”.
Christian waited a number of years before he actually shared the video, and he explained that he still needed time to accept himself.
“It was such a personal and monumental moment in my life, that I needed time to continue to accept myself before posting it for the world to see,” he added.
Now, the 25-year-old works as a medical scribe but he also volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate and volunteers to do art therapy and tutoring with a local Children’s home.
