One important LGBTQIA+ icon in the Asian American Community is Eugene Lee Yang. He is best known for his role as one of the Try Guys, a popular YouTube group. In June of 2019, Eugene posted a video titled “I’m Gay,” where he beautifully outlined his entire story of being a gay Asian American. In his coming out video, Eugene uses each of the colors of the rainbow in order to represent one segment of his life that relates to his sexuality. One of the main themes of the video is Eugene addressing his identity as a South Korean, and how that has brought him significant discrimination and ridicule from the Asian American community. I think that Eugene Lee Yang and his coming out video holds a lot of cultural significance, especially for the Asian American community. Because many Asians tend to not be accepting of people who identify as LGBTQIA+, I think that Eugene’s video was important to encourage other young Asians to be proud of their identities.
