A new behind-the-scenes video gives us a better idea of why Eugene Lee Yang is coming out.
Two days ago, Eugene Lee Yang, one of the co-founders and creatives behind popular YouTube channel and property the Try Guys, released a coming out video.
As we explained in our coverage of the video, Eugene had been slowly becoming more open about his sexual orientation and romantic life over the past few years. The LA talent had started to openly discuss being a part of the LGBTQ community, though without giving himself a specific label, talk about past relationships and sexual exploits with both men and women, and even take up a drag persona.
But it was two days ago when Eugene officially announced a label to the rest of the world. And what did the world say back? Well, primarily the world was crying and clapping in solidarity for Yang. Unfortunately, there was a bit of ridicule to go with that praise.
We here at Instinct Magazine are no strangers to gays being picky and cheeky online. Comes with the territory. This Instinct writer specifically has seen his fair share of internet users giving rude or catty commentary for the sake of sounding entitled or self-important. But, seeing comments like, “He’s gay? SHOCKER” and “hunny we’ve known for a long time” and “He’s just now coming out?” was especially disappointing.
Being gay and Asian is your mom seeing your coming out video and the first thing she says is “오모 you look too skinny.”
— Eugene Lee Yang (@EugeneLeeYang) June 16, 2019
But why did Eugene Lee Yang decide to come out now? Eugene released a behind-the-scenes video, which you can watch below, to explain that it’s because, frankly, he’s a complicated human being just like the rest of us. And more specifically, he feared, like many of us, being rejected after officially coming out.
“I am afraid that some people I’m very close to will disown me and not talk to me anymore because of this video,” Eugene explained in the behind the scenes video below.
That’s not all. unlike the rest of us, the YouTuber and creative talent had more people to disappoint. Eugene Lee Yang also shared that he’s dealt with pushback after trying to discuss personal struggles before. Those experiences certainly didn’t encourage him to open up more.
“I did a few videos where I was very honest about my background in self-hating,” Eugene explained. “I got some tweets or responses from other Asians who said like, ‘How dare you. You’re supposed to be a role model. You can’t talk about hating yourself. That’s not what we’re about these days. Everything’s positivity. You’re someone people look up to and you shouldn’t be talking about this toxic, emotional, complex relationship with your race or identity.”
All of this culminated in the artist deciding to slowly work up to this big coming out moment.
“There’s a lot of really personal reasons why I haven’t explicitly come out. We hold things back because we’re very scared that there’s going to be repercussions,” said the actor and director in the below video. “I’m not even really comfortable talking about it right now, but I think I’ll be able to open up more about it later. But I just know that this is the time. I think sometimes you just know.”
Again, Eugene and the Try Guys released a behind-the-scenes video earlier today to show how Eugene conceptualized, directed, produced, and starred in the trending video. In addition, Yang talks about why he decided to come out publicly as gay now. The video shows Eugene discussing growing up gay and how being an internet celebrity has affected his identity and sexual expression.
To hear and see all of this and more, you can watch the video down below.
