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Dan Brian came out to his mother on a YouTube video that’s gone viral. In the video, he explains to the audience what he is doing, while fidgeting his arms, and explaining that they are shaking because he is so nervous.
Shortly after, his mother comes home and senses something important is about to be said. As he delays announcing the news that he is gay, his mother grows anxious. He extends the drum roll of his nervous conversation as she prods him with searching questions: “Did you get a job?” “What is it?”
Finally, the moment of truth arrives when he says quietly, “I’m gay.” She pauses for a moment, and then tells him how proud she is of him for being who he was. She didn’t know she was being videotaped at the time.
Then she flips to mom mode and tells him that she is fully okay with him having boyfriends and bringing them to the house, but warns of the prejudice in the world. She then says she suspected it, and has been telling him to “be himself” and is proud of him for coming to terms with his identity. The whole while, Daniel texts messages on his phone. He later explained:
“I know I am on my phone the whole time. My phone is my comfort blanket. I literally cannot put it down when I’m anxious. I do not mean any disrespect to the content of the conversation.”
On his YouTube page, Daniel said:
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“Finally got the strength to come out to my mom. My Mom has been extremely supportive. I could not ask for anyone else….Every circumstance is different and you will know when the right time to come out is. Stay strong. Babz and I are here for you….I decided to post this so that I could share my experience with you. Hopefully it will give hope to those who do not have such supportive families….and she didn’t know she was being recorded. I put the camera in a tissue box on top of the refrigerator.”
The video ends with the mother saying, “You know what? I think you’re gong to be better off now.”
The video is meant to encourage gays (and others) to “be yourself,” and not hide your identity because you are gay. However, as a side note, the video also highlights how much electronic technology has become the setting for modern life, especially in the younger generation. An intimate moment of affirmed self-identity with one’s mother now becomes available for public consumption, and anxiety is deferred with tweeting, texting, and other ways to escape the immediate situation. This has the effect of making personal struggles available to a supporting public, those in the gay community, for instance, who were encouraged by the video, and also makes our daily life a tad less personal.
