Today is the day over 9,000 YouTubers have anticipated. One gay soldier, who has been video chronicling coming out to his friends and officers while serving in the middle east, has finally revealed his face — and come out to his dad — as he promised he would do when the military officially repealed its policy against gays and lesbians, “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Since April, AreYouSuprised has filmed himself from the neck down, discussing — often intimately — his feelings about being gay and closeted in the military.
His fans have been more than a little curious, not just about his identity, but also about how it would go when he finally revealed his sexuality to his parents.
True to his promise, AreYouSuprised’s video showed him coming out to his father via a long distance phone call from Germany.
The 7 minute video is sometimes hard to hear, but the mediocre sound quality does not dampen the emotion between father and son. When his father tells son he will always love him, AreYouSuprised sounds close to tears. “I will always love you,” his father says. “I will always be proud of you.”
Since AreYouSuprised began vlogging his struggles to come out to his comrades, he has collected a little over 9,000 subscribers, and views of his videos have ranged from under 10,000 to over a million for one viral video of his.
Most importantly, those 9,000 subscribers have provided a support base that gave him love and advice whenever he asked or needed it.
And in this case, his subscribers and fans are offering congratulations and words of praise.
“Dude, that took some balls” wrote twackman4life
“Wow, your a brave person, and your Dad is obviously a great person. This video is going to make alot of people feel good and help others” wrote fallingleafmotion
“I just bawled my eyes out watching this. It totally gets better!” commented cobwebbedcorner
“That was awesome, so proud of you… and to do this on such a historic day. An amazing video for a historic day. Acceptance and unconditional love for a son is one of the greatest gifts” wrote sTewPac22.
