The official National Coming Out Day was October 11, but apparently someone forgot to tell the men of country music that.
Just hours after Ty Herndon revealed that he is an out and proud man, another country singer decided it was time to reveal that he's also gay … Billy Gilman.
Billy, however, did things a little differently than Ty. Rather than going on national television and appearing on People.com to make his announcement, Billy made the announcement in an emotional video on YouTube.
"Hmm. How should I say this?" He started the video, obviously struggling with how to begin his revelation.
You know, it's difficult for me to make this video not because I'm ashamed of being a gay male artist or a gay artist or a gay person. But it's pretty silly to know that I'm ashamed of doing this knowing that because I'm in an genre and industry that is ashamed of me for being me. That said, I want to say that all of the country artists that literally I grew up with – Keith Urban, Vince, LeAnn Rimes and all of these wonderful friends of mine have been nothing but supportive. Not that they knew but they've just been such wonderful people.
After Billy's announcement, LeAnn Rimes, who was singled out in the video as being very supportive in the past, tweeted her happiness.
I'm crying in a damn @McDonalds restroom in VA Thx to you both @TyHerndoncom @BillyGilman #speakthetruth #LGBT #ComingOut
— LeAnn Rimes Cibrian (@leannrimes) November 20, 2014
Billy also revealed in his video that he's had a boyfriend for the past five months and knows that coming out will probably be detrimental to his country music career.
I certainly hope he's proven wrong.
Check out Billy's full coming out video below.
