New Blue Peter presenter Adam Beales pretended to come out as gay as a ‘prank’ in resurfaced YouTube video
Adam Beales (YouTube)
New Blue Peter presenter Adam Beales has been defended by Peter Tatchell after a resurfaced video showed him pretending to come out as gay to his friends in a “prank” on YouTube.
Adam B, as his three million YouTube followers know him, was confirmed Wednesday (September 2) as the 40th presenter on the BBC’s Blue Peter.
After the announcement, it emerged that one of the 20-year-old’s videos, created in 2016, shows him pretending to come out to his friends using the lyrics of “I’m Coming Out” by Diana Ross.
In the clip Adam, from Derry, Northern Ireland, messages friends on Facebook and tells them that he has something he wants to talk to them about – but his “prank” backfires when his friends seemed unsurprised by his admission.
When he sends the Diana Ross lyrics to one friend, he simply replied: “Knew that anyway”, while another said it was “about time” he came out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=361&v=hGYorRxJBcQ&feature=emb_logo
“There’s not one single person so far who said, ‘Congratulations Adam,’ or ‘Wow, I never knew, so shocking’,” he says in the video.
“This is worrying. This is really, really worrying.”
At the end of the video, Adam makes clear that “there’s nothing wrong with being gay”.
“People think I’m gay. That says a lot about me,” he says.
“But in all seriousness guys, there’s nothing wrong with being gay. But I am not gay. Just want to clear that up. I am not gay, even though I tried to prank people and they still think that I am gay.”
Speaking to the Daily Mail about the video, LGBT+ rights activist Peter Tatchell said that coming out should not be “trivialised” or turned into a prank – however, he said he didn’t believe Adam B made the video with “homophobic intent”.
“His response and those of the people he pranked were not anti-gay,” Tatchell said.
“If anything, Adam himself became the butt of his own prank. There are bigger issues to get angry about.”
