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YouTube Star Joe Tasker Comes Out As Gay & Introduces His Boyfriend
“I’m gay. So there we go. That’s the first bit done.”
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, YouTube star and CBBC’s Saturday Mash-Up Live! presenter Joe Tasker opened up about his sexuality and introduced the world to his boyfriend.
Referring to the news as “a bit of a biggy,” Tasker had been teasing the news on his social media over the weekend, sharing he was scared to upload it. But now his fans are celebrating.
Tasker has long kept his personal life private, so being this open has proven to be a very nerve-wracking experience, sharing that his “heart has left [his] chest”.
“This is the biggest video I will probably ever release,” he begins. “This is it… right… I’ve always kept anything personal, anything private, anything like that, just offline. Just because I enjoy my offline life.
“I’ve never really opened up so this will be my first and maybe only time opening up. This is a video that I have always thought about in the back of my head since I uploaded my first-ever video. It was a conscious decision — or subconscious — I don’t know it’s in there somewhere, there’s a lot of stuff going on up there. This being the biggest thing that I’ve always put in the back of my mind, it’s going to come up at some point.
“I’m gay. So there we go. That’s the first bit done.”
He confesses to being scared about the reactions the video will get, joking that he won’t look at his phone for a while. He went on to explain how things were different when he was younger. “There’s so many coming out videos now than when I was younger,” he said. “When I was younger, you suppressed it and you just got on with your stuff.”
Tasker also shared that he has been out to his family and friends, after slowly coming out to them during his time at university. Most of those experiences proved to be positive but he also shared one that didn’t — which unfortunately was also the first time he came out to a friend.
“He was just like, ‘Oh, I need time to process this…’ At one point he said, ‘You’re just doing this for attention obviously, or something.’
“That was my first coming-out experience,” Tasker shared. “That just put me off.”
As Tasker became increasingly in the public eye, he chose to keep his private life awawy from the public. Until now, that is. “I don’t think I was ready, you know? I think that’s what it was. I think I’m ready now. What I’m getting at, there’s no right or wrong time…. whenever you’re ready. Which is very cliche, but it is,” he shared.
“And the most cliche-est thing, which is the most realest thing, is it’s all about being happy. It’s your happiness. If you’re feeling like you’re not happy and you need to tell someone – do it! If that’s going to make you happy, that is literally all it is.
“I have never been as happy as I am right now.”
What’s making him so happy? For one thing, he has a boyfriend. In the video, he shared that he has been in a four-year relationship with fellow YouTube star Jack Biggs.
“I’ve finally found someone who’s as weird as me,” he gushed. “And we are in love!”
“This guy, right? We are both so similar in a way that our backgrounds of, like, suppressing being gay and not telling anyone… it’s bang on,” continued Tasker. “Family stuff and other things I won’t share… it’s so similar. And other things we’ve experienced.”
Anytime someone comes out, particularly someone in the public eye, it can be intimidating. But seeing someone embrace their authentic self and be open about who they are is always inspirational. Today was Tasker’s turn, and we love to see it.
Rachel Shatto, Editor in Chief of PRIDE.com, is an SF Bay Area-based writer, podcaster, and former editor of Curve magazine, where she honed her passion for writing about social justice and sex (and their frequent intersection). Her work has appeared on Dread Central, Elite Daily, Tecca, and Joystiq. She's a GALECA member and she podcasts regularly about horror on the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network. She can’t live without cats, vintage style, video games, drag queens, or the Oxford comma.
Rachel Shatto, Editor in Chief of PRIDE.com, is an SF Bay Area-based writer, podcaster, and former editor of Curve magazine, where she honed her passion for writing about social justice and sex (and their frequent intersection). Her work has appeared on Dread Central, Elite Daily, Tecca, and Joystiq. She's a GALECA member and she podcasts regularly about horror on the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network. She can’t live without cats, vintage style, video games, drag queens, or the Oxford comma.
