Abigail Thorn, the UK-based creator of popular educational YouTube channel Philosophy Tube, has come out as a transgender woman in her January 30 video.
The YouTube video, which was followed up with a further statement on Philosophy Tube’s Twitter account, depicts Thorn’s transformation from her former gender identity to her current one.
The video, which is entitled ‘Identity: A Trans Coming Out Story’, has already amassed over half a million views, has 79k likes and is #3 on YouTube’s Trending page in the UK. In it, Abigail initially addresses the camera as a male, saying: “I really hope this doesn’t change the way you see me. In a way, I’ll always be here. In the last seven years of videos, I’ll be there as a performance, as a character on the screen. A man who isn’t there.”
She continues: “Whatever happens, I am incredibly grateful, especially to the people who support me on Patreon. I hope you will continue to support the show and the person who will be here after I am gone. Thank you very much. You have been a wonderful audience.”
In an emotional moment, Thorn, as their male persona, then proceeds to take a bow on stage before slowly fading away. The camera then pans to the stage door, where Abigail as her true self strides in, grinning from ear to ear. The video then fades to black with the title card: Part Two: Abigail.
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Thorn later expanded on her journey in a statement posted to the Philosophy Tube Twitter account. Admitting that she’d been “keeping it a secret for a long time,” Thorn requested in her statement that her privacy be respected and asked social media users to “treat everyone with kindness and patience, even those who don’t treat me kindly.”
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“It’s so lovely to finally relax, to sleep well with sweet dreams and be myself,” she says in her statement. “But, I’m also scared.”
https://twitter.com/PhilosophyTube/status/1355577911949070341
“Things are very, very bad for trans people in the UK and they’re getting worse. My existing following means that I have instantly become one of the most recognisable transgender people in the country and I feel an enormous pressure to be ‘good at it,’ like if I can only be clever enough, or pretty or funny or articulate enough, things would magically become right.”
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Abigail then proceeds to discuss some of the struggles transgender people face in the UK, such as the fact that “the NHS [National Health Service] are forced by outdated laws to discriminate against us”.
She then in turn announces that she’d like to “add [her] voice to the many demanding new legislation for trans equal rights.”
“I hope someday soon that people realize that being trans is perfectly normal,” Thorn says.