Calum Scott on how he overcame being abandoned by friends during ‘traumatic’ coming out

Picture: Provided

Calum Scott says being abandoned by friends after coming out to them as a teenager was “traumatic” and made him suppress his sexuality for years afterward.

The ‘Biblical’ singer has been speaking to Attitude for My Pride, sponsored by United Airlines, which is a part of the Attitude Pride at Home digital festival running from 9 to 19 June.

Recounting his first ever Pride experience being at Hull Pride before he came out, Calum says it was overwhelming.

“There’s so much going on and so much colour and so much personality and things like that, that for somebody like me it was exciting but it was also scary because. I hadn’t come to a place where was confident with it and yet I was at an event where everybody seems very confident.”

But he said as the day went on he felt “more and more at peace” with himself. And being there gave Calum a lot of confidence in order to begin to come out himself.

He shares that as he began to tell his friends that he didn’t feel like he was like them and was questioning his sexuality he was “totally abandoned”. 

“That for me made me suppress my sexuality for most of my teens, most of my twenties. It was a traumatic event. I’d seen what me being honest had done and how it had crushed me that I was like, well, for me, now I’m never going to tell anybody else because then I’m going to lose more people.”

Thankfully, telling his parents went better and Calum was able to eventually tell his story in his song ‘No Matter What’ which he says is his “entire journey” of coming out and how it can go. 

Seeing the reaction the song got and how it related to so many people’s experiences made Calum realise it was a goal of his to “use my own circumstances however painful to create a tool for people.”

He continues, “That for me felt like my acceptance. Not only did I accept myself as somebody who was honest, who talked about their situations but for me to talk honestly and openly about being a gay man, which I would never have done.”

In addition to Calum, TV presenter extraordinaire Gok Wan, Cabaret actor Fra Fee, and RuPaul’s Drag Race icons Peppermint, Trixie, and Katya will also be sharing their memories and lessons of Pride.

My Pride, sponsored by United Airlines, is part of Attitude Pride at Home, which runs from 9-19 June on attitude.co.uk, youtube.com/attitudemag, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (@attitudemag).

Attitude Pride at Home is to benefit the Attitude Magazine Foundation for LGBT causes. 

To donate £3 please text ATHOME3 to 70480 or click here.