Gay YouTuber’s dad reveals he contemplated suicide after his son came out
Gay YouTuber Riyadh Khalaf, known for videos such as ‘Mum reads son’s Grindr messages‘ and ‘Dad learns internet slang‘, has posted a new video with his parents in which he discusses his experience of coming out to them.
In the emotional video, Khalaf explained that his parents had completely different reactions to the news.
His mother, Lorraine, was raised Catholic in Dublin and accidentally found out about Riyadh’s sexuality when she stumbled onto his web history and found a ‘gay website’.
“I got a shock! It was a confirmation in my head – I thought he might be,” his mother explains.
She adds, “I walked into the living room, dried my tears, and said, ‘Riyadh, do you have something to say to me? I love you no matter what, you can tell me anything.'”
Riyadh then came out to his mother, but his father Sam only found out nine months later. During that time, Riyadh explained how he became more and more distant with his father.
Riyadh explains how his mum urged him to come out to his dad but he was “unable to say the words” and instead, pulled out a school book wrote them down.
In the video his father said, “I read it and I was like ‘really? It can’t be’. It was just so confusing.”
“Thinking about it now… it was such a drama.”
He also said that “for every father and every mother that they love their kid, they have to stand by them because the only one who’s going to stand by you, is your kid.”
The three share a hug before his father reveals that he was so distraught by the news that he considered killing himself.
“I actually got up that night about 3 or 4 in the morning, and I was looking for tablets to commit suicide. It was so stupid.”
The pair console the father and he says, “That’s why I said it was so stupid”.
“I knew you were thinking about it but I didn’t know…” Riyadh says, before calling him the “best f*cking dad in the world.”
Riyadh finishes the video by saying, “I’ve never seen a turnaround in two parents as much as these two. We talk about everything. We actually talk about too much! It’s a bit over the top.”
“Both of them have come with me to gay nightclubs, we’ve gone to gay pride, they were at the front of the parade for years!”
You can watch the full video below:
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