Man shares grandmother’s heartwarming response to his coming out in emotional video
A TikToker in Singapore has shared the emotional moment that he came out to his grandma and her heartwarming response. (TikTok/@shaunshyen)
A TikToker shared his coming out moment to his grandma and her beautiful response.
The video starts with TikTok user @shaunshyen standing outside the building where his grandmother lives in Singapore, admitting via a caption that he’s a “little nervous”.
When he arrives at her flat, his grandmother is visibly happy to see her grandson. She flashes him a smile and rushes to greet him at the door.
The two can be seen in the video bonding over a TV show while Shyen was “waiting for the right moment”.
Once the show ends, Shyen announces “it’s time” to break the news and hugs his grandma.
“I have to tell you something,” Shyen begins. “When I was young, I have known this. I told my dad and mom that I like guys. Are you OK with it?”
“OK, it doesn’t matter,” his grandma responds.
In the caption, Shyen shared that he “always felt guilty” that he couldn’t give his grandma a “wedding to attend” because of Singaporean law.
He tells her that he “can’t get married”, but his grandma just repeats that “it doesn’t matter”.
https://www.tiktok.com/@shaunshyen/video/7014386299532528897?lang=en&is_copy_url=0&is_from_webapp=v1&sender_device=pc&sender_web_id=6922847585905460742
The heartwarming coming out video has been viewed over 1.2 million times on TikTok and thousands of people liked the post on the video-sharing app.
One person commented that Shyen’s grandma looks “so happy” in the video and that that they “wanna be her when I’m old”. Another person said his grandma’s reaction showed “how much she loves” him because his sexuality clearly “does not matter one bit to her”.
Shyen responded to one comment that told him he “shouldn’t have come out” to his grandma, saying that she must be “bleeding inside”.
He posted a follow-up video with his grandma that quickly disproved this notion.
Once again, the video starts with Shyen’s grandma being excited at the sight of her grandson at her door. She laughs and declares that her “naughty boy is back again”.
Shyen asks if his grandma regrets him coming out to her, but she reassures him that she has no regrets and she loves him.
“I love all my grandchildren as they are precious to me,” she says.
Shyen told PinkNews that he had previously come out to everyone in his family except his grandma “because I was afraid she might not understand it”. But he felt the “need to be honest with her and not to hide who I am” because of “how much she loves me”.
Just last year, a court in Singapore dismissed a bid to overturn a colonial-era gay sex ban, and three Singaporean campaigners launched another appeal against the decision earlier this year.
The law, known as Section 377A, criminalises “any act of gross indecency” by a man “with another male person”. Under the law, men found guilty of homosexual acts in public or private can be jailed for up to two years.
There are also no legal protections for LGBT+ Singaporeans against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, according to Human Rights Watch.
Participants hold up placards during the ‘Night Pink Dot’ event to increase awareness and understanding of Singapore’s LGBT+ community on 30 June 2012. (Getty/Suhaimi Abdullah)
Earlier this year, a trans student at the Millenia Institute in Singapore claimed she was banned from school unless she cut her hair and wore a boys’ uniform. Ashlee posted her story on social media and explained she became a “target” of the ministry of education who allegedly sought to block her gender-affirming treatment.
Her story prompted a group of Singaporean LGBT+ organisations to come out in support of Ashlee, saying her “rights to privacy, health, safety and education were violated by her school”.
