Coming Out As Trans

Hello lovely patrons!

I’m delighted to say that I’m a trans woman; my name is Abigail and you can refer to me with she/her. I’ve actually been keeping this secret for a long, long time: tonight’s video is the conclusion of the Cosmonaut Trilogy and my coming out. (It’s also about the philosophy of identity, because Philosophy Tube is for education after all, it’s not the Abi Thorn show! It’s got some really cool concepts in it!) I’ve been slowly transitioning in secret and I waited until I was ready to tell you all.

Going forward I’m actually not planning on changing much about the show. I’m not going to rebrand or pivot to ‘trans content’. The fact that I’m trans might come up occasionally because it’s philosophically quite interesting, as tonight’s video shows I hope! I’ll probably wear some different costumes and obviously I look a bit different. But other than that, Philosophy Tube will stay. I have some really cool ideas for episodes I’d like to do this year! I’ll continue my professional acting career too; I know some of you have been following that (or trying to, what with COVID closing down theatres). I’ll leave my old videos up; I’m not ashamed of having transitioned and I know people still learn a lot from them so I don’t feel the need to hide that part of my life.

I can’t know how the rest of the world will react to my coming out; because of the political situation in my country it puts me under quite a bit of pressure as someone in the public eye. But I wanted you patrons to know that you’re the audience I care about most of all. I am extremely grateful to you; you let me do this job, you let me live my life in a way that makes me happy, you pay my rent and my bills and feed me, and I feel lucky every day because of it. I’ve tried to cultivate an audience of open-minded, curious people who aren’t afraid to consider new ideas, and you’ve all consistently blown me away by how much you’re up for that! I mean this is The Internet! People on here are supposed to be terrible, but you’re not, you’re amazing! I hope this doesn’t change the way you feel about me or the show. A lot of you send me fan mail and messages, particularly young men saying my work gives them a role model of masculinity - those messages have been both uplifting and strange to read whilst I’ve been realising that I’m not a man and can’t pretend to be anymore. I hope that if my work has meant something to you, you won’t feel that something has been taken away by this revelation, particularly if you got something you needed out of Men. Abuse. Trauma. I hope that you’ll continue supporting the show and my effort to give away free education. That’s still what I want to do with this channel. It’s not about me, it’s about you, and how powerful you can become when you start using your brain and your heart to understand the world and all the wonderful different kinds of people it contains.

With all my love,

Abi XXx