YouTube comedy sensation Shane Dawson came out as bisexual in a heartfelt video to his fans on Tuesday.
Dawson, who has more than 6 million subscribers to his YouTube channel, said he'd been confused about his sexuality his whole life and wanted others who felt neither gay nor straight to know they're not alone.
"I am bisexual," he said in a video that had been viewed nearly 1.7 million times by Wednesday morning. "And the reason I'm talking about it is there's a lot of coming-out videos of people who are gay or lesbian, and they're so confident, like 'I've known since I was 5. I've always been gay,'" he said.
He mentioned YouTube beauty star Ingrid Nilsen, who came out as gay in a video on her hit channel last month.
"I'm not that," Dawson said. "I don't know who I am 100 percent. And I know that a lot of you guys might feel the same way."
Dawson, 26, who's been making YouTube comedy sketches since 2008, went on to describe being attracted to both boys and girls at a young age but being forced to "shut it down" because his religious family didn't approve. He started dating women in his twenties, but it spiraled into self-hatred because he felt guilty for hiding his true sexuality from them.
"What I've been trying to do for the last couple months is just not be so hard on myself," he said through tears. "And just be open to love whether it's a guy or a girl, because I don't want to go my whole life closing it down."
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