UTRECHTSE HEUVELRUG – “It is still a taboo to say that you are gay or bisexual.” And the only 18-year-old Quinten from Doorn wants to change that with his TikTok account where he has more than 765,000 followers . “I have a large audience and I want to have a positive influence on that. †
TikTok campaign
He tries to exert that influence by talking about his sexuality and making many TikTok videos about it. He is part of TikTok campaign #YourSuperkracht. Here, the LGBTQ community is highlighted through stories from TikTok makers, including Quinten himself. “I used to think I wasn’t going to make a lot of videos about it and not go out too much about it. But when I see what I can bring about by just talking about it, I’m glad I’m working on it a lot now.”
Quinten also received a lot of positive reactions from people who still have a lot of trouble coming out. “They then send me a message that they are crossing the threshold through my TikTok. That is the reason for me to keep promoting this.”
Out of the closet yourself
Quinten himself also knows how difficult it is to come out. When he was 12 years old, boys became interesting to him. ”I didn’t want to put a label on it, but then you start thinking about those kinds of things at the very beginning of your puberty. Two years later, at fourteen, he was sure. ”I’m bisexual and I’m putting a label on it now, but I’ll keep it a secret.” Quinten has to laugh a bit. “It’s crazy that it happened that way, that I didn’t just dare to say it at the time.”
Until he came out on social media a year and a half ago. “I had such a nice relationship that I thought it was time to share it.” However, there are also nasty sides to coming out. He still gets an annoying message every day. “Unfortunately, you keep that, but when I see the positive reactions, it is more than worth it.”
‘Do it your way, but please talk about it’
According to the TikTok maker, things are already going a lot better and there is more acceptance for gay and bisexuals, but we are not yet at the desired level. “It just has to be really normal to be able to walk down the street hand in hand with the same sex. That is already better, but not yet 100 percent accepted.” And so there are still many people who do not dare to come out.
Quinten has another message for those people. “It’s easy for me to talk now, but I felt really good when I came out. I would like to say that you should wait when it feels right to come out and tell people you trust.”