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i have been following dan for years now.

and i have to say, to this day, he continues to make me the proudest person on earth. he’s shown me love and acceptance to myself and others. he gave me hope, he gave me phil.

so, today, i want to thank him for all of that. and i’d like to let him know that he’s loved, accepted and cherished for who he is and will always be.

so, thank you, dan. thank you for being brave, thank you for being you. thank you for reminding me that everything is going to be fine. thank you for making me feel safe.

i love you, moonlight. i am forever proud of you and extremely glad i get to call you the biggest inspiration i have. thank you for showing me a bit of you, so i can be a better me.

This video felt like it was for that past self. That scared fourteen year old. I cried during the video, thinking about how much this would have meant to my past self, even if I probably would have taken it for granted. How much it means to me now.

I am so grateful that he took his time. Grateful that he explained his side. Glad he expanded a bit past the standard coming out video. More than that, I’m so glad he’s here. Glad I’m here to witness this. Glad we’re both working towards happiness.

I am so thankful to Daniel Howell. For his explanation of what “queer” means to him, for the mention of very real issues that still exist in the community, for the graceful way he handled the “Phan” thing.

I’m lucky in a lot of ways. I’ve never gone through bullying like he described. I know my mom would accept me. But I’ve still never said anything about it to my family. Maybe to avoid the awkwardness, the questions that are sure to come. Maybe I’m just scared. I did laugh at the email part, thinking about how the first time I “came out” was by adding some friends to a group chat titled “I’m kinda gay” and then just,, leaving the group.

I don’t want to say I’m going to come out because of Dan, but I think I might tell my family soon? I’ve been rolling it over in my head for a while, and this June was always the tentative goal. Now that it’s here I’m not sure what I’ll do, but this video seems to have gotten me thinking it again.

Things that are ok:

- Shipping Dan and Phil

- Creating Phan content

Because: Dan has said he’s okay with it.

Things that are not ok:

- Making Dan’s coming out video about Phan

- Speculating on the real-life nature of Dan and Phil’s relationship

Because: Dan has explicitly told you not to do those things.

It is so important. I can’t even adequately describe what I felt when I saw the title and the sheer length of the video. The title punched me in the gut and I was stunned. I wasn’t sure I’d ever expected him to come out. It’s a big thing and I imagined that it must be even more terrifying with so many eyes on you. And he didn’t owe it to anyone. He could have continued to live his live, privately existing in the gayness he had accepted himself but he chose to share it.

It matters a lot. Like he said in the video, it always helps when someone opens up about their sexuality and offer people representation. It’s a sign that you’re not alone. I’m happy the world is changing with most people being more accepting of the queer community and that now, in June of 2019, Dan Howell felt that the real world and online world was safe enough for him to open up about himself.

I hope that no kids in the future will have to suffer like Dan and so many other queer kids did while growing up. I hope that people find his video and that it can impact them in the same way I can feel the impact in my whole body right now. Dan has always been such an eloquent and thoughtful speaker, particularly in his main channel videos, and he did an absolutely tremendous job this time. I’ve never felt so captivated by one of his videos, constantly catching his eyes and feeling like he was truly seeing me as I was seeing him.

Still, it was a Dan video with jokes and entertaining qualities that somehow perfectly balanced out the darker parts of the video. He struck that balance like a champion and you could feel him in every aspect, all the way down to the chapters and the changing lights around his face. It is a masterpiece of a video that I know I’ll come back to again and again.

Dan Howell is here and he is queer. He voluntarily laid himself bare and chose to be vulnerable because he knows it will help people and hopefully also help himself move forward. It was a privilege to get to hear his story, all the way from childhood and my heart aches for young Dan. I’m so happy he found a safe space and someone who accepted him and I can only hope that the community around him now shows him just how treasured he should be.

Thank you for living your truth and trusting us with this private information about yourself. The LGBTQ+ community is endlessly lucky to have someone like you be part of it. Some of your words tonight resonated with me in a way that I hadn’t known I needed before I heard your voice saying them. You did so well on this, even if I know it must have been stressful and anxiety inducing to produce this video.

Dan wanted to come out in a 45 minute video with a bang. During pride month. He wanted to make a statement, tell his truth, so he did. Brilliantly. And he’s #1 on trending, both on youtube and twitter, people are talking about him and sending him support, it’s public and inspiring and beautiful in a lot of ways.

Phil wanted to come out in a way that no one would talk about it. So he did. He is out, he is supporting his boyfriend, but he’s not trending, he’s not being featured in articles, he’s not plastered across the entire internet. And it’s also beautiful.

after watching dan’s newest video and hearing his story, i’d like to share a few things i want us all to remember going forward.

nothing is changing unless he asks us to change it. he clearly feels comfortable in this community, which is something to be proud of, and we’re solely here to support him.

“phan” is not a part of this. we’re now aware that dan and phil were together in 2009, but we know nothing about now, and that’s not the point. this was dan’s big coming out, and phil added that he’s also not straight on twitter afterwards, but that doesn’t say anything about their relationship. they haven’t said anything about their relationship, and it’s clear that this is intentional. they want to keep these things to themselves, and we should respect that. in no capacity does their coming out mean phan is real, and we shouldn’t treat it as such. 

we shouldn’t shame anyone who was in the phandom during dan’s rough patch; it was bad, but there’s nothing to be done about it now, and these people have grown into modern times. most of them probably feel bad enough about it already, and hell, we don’t even know if they were the problem in the first place. respect each other.

now that we have a “canon” for dan’s sexuality, this doesn’t mean any fanworks are “invalid”. nothing that was generally “disproven” by this video is now invalid. again, nothing needs to change unless dan (or phil) says it needs to.

this video is not something to argue about. this video is not something to speculate about. this video, and dan, is something to celebrate. that’s ALL it is.

the most important thing is RESPECT. this openness is truly the beginning of a new era, and that’s something to celebrate, but do it RESPECTFULLY. we still don’t know a lot of things, and clearly dan (and/or phil) doesn’t want us to. that’s okay. we need to respect them, and we need to respect each other. that’s true of now and of before the video.

friend: you better not play trash

me:

me and my friend: