A positive coming out story

The video above is a vlog from 18-year-old South African-born Australian actor Troye Sivan, who is perhaps best known for playing James Howett, the boy who became Wolverine (played by Hugh Jackman) in the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine (which I've seen). In addition to acting in films, he’s also a singer and songwriter.

In the video, titled “Coming Out”, Troye tells his fans that he’s gay, on the third anniversary of his having told his family. One thing that struck me about his video came near the end when he says that not only do things get better for LGBT kids, “it can be good from the start,” as it was for him. I think it’s important for young gay kids looking for information and support online—as Troye was at 14—to see stories where everything turns out just fine, in addition to the ones in which people persevere over bad reactions to coming out. These days, we in much of the Western world see a lot of happy endings to coming out stories.

He seems to have struck a positive chord with his fans and young gay people, too. I saw a couple “response” videos, like this one and this one.

It’s interesting to me how we sometimes turn to celebrities of one sort or another to say the things we can’t say or to reinforce the things we think and feel. Whether that’s a good idea or not is beside the point: People, especially young people, do it. I feel good about some young gay kid finding this video by Troye, and that’s not always been the case with other coming out videos I’ve seen.

I didn’t know about Troye by name until today, and only ran across this video as part of my daily morning look through things on the Internet. He seems like an impressive young man with his heart in the right place, and he will certainly have helped some kids with this video. At any rate, it makes a great antidote to what's happening to gay teens in a certain other country…

You check out Troye's YouTube Channel for more videos, including his music videos.

Tip o’ the Hat to Out.com.