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Watch This Heartwarming Holiday Video That Has Social Media In Meltdown & Try Not To Cry
This viral video will have you tearing up!
The holidays can be a tough time of year for the queer community because returning home can often mean dealing with your conservative uncle or family members who refuse to accept your partner or won’t use your correct pronouns. This may be why a heartwarming video about a father learning to accept his trans son is currently making the rounds on social media.
The video titled The LGBTQ+ Message Every Person Should See follows the story of trans teenager Miles singing “O Christmas Tree” at a holiday talent show. The short video shows Miles struggling to perform because he’s afraid his dad doesn’t accept him, intercut with flashbacks of the father slowly coming to terms with his son’s identity.
In the flashback scenes, at first, the dad seems angry—even yelling at Miles when he cuts his hair—but then we see him creating a personalized guitar strap for Miles, and in the present, when his son gets stage fright, he begins singing the song to help prompt him.
Post by @michaelschecterView on Threads
At one point, the grandfather asks if the performer is his daughter, and the dad looks embarrassed. It’s heartbreaking, but we get a joyful resolution when Miles’ song ends. He and his dad rush to embrace before his father tells the grandfather, “This is your grandson, dad. This is Miles.”
It’s so beautiful that you’ll likely be holding back tears when the video ends.
The short film was created in 2021 by Encircle, a Utah-based nonprofit that provides essential mental health services to LGBTQ+ youth, young adults, and families. The video stars Miles McKenna, a trans vlogger, actor, and LGBTQ+ advocate. McKenna first gained popularity by chronicling his transition on his YouTube channel, which has over 1 million followers. He has gone on to release a single on Spotify, publish a book about coming out, and starred in the new Goosebumps TV show earlier this year for Disney+.
The video has been shared many times on social media, including on Threads where someone commented, "Crying my eyes out here…we need more like this so people will wake up!! Beautifully done."
"Damn it, watched this on my lunch break, now I have to go back to work with red puffy eyes!" another person wrote.
A parent also took to the comments to share a beautiful story, "As I watched this I recall when my daughter came out. I was not mad I was more upset with myself,that she was scared to tell me. There was no accepting it because we never looked at it that way. This was our daughter and because she wanted to love another human being like her, who the fk are we to say no! And now, knowing the gay community is one of the best things that ever happened to our family. It is refreshing and the people are beautiful in mind and body. Love is truly Love. The video offers so much catharsis it’s easy to see why people are eagerly watching it again."
The video offers so much catharsis it’s easy to see why people are eagerly watching it again and again.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
