Popular YouTuber Abigail Thorn Comes Out As Trans

Twenty-seven year old British YouTuber Abigail Thorn, the force behind the wildly popular YouTube channel Philosophy Tube, which has amassed over 50 million views, has publicly come out as trans in a letter posted to her 856,000 followers.

“Hello friends! I’m delighted to say I’m a trans woman; my name is Abigail, and you can refer to me with she/her.” 

https://twitter.com/PhilosophyTube/status/1355577911949070341

Continuing, Thorn takes aim at the constant discrimination levelled at transgender people living within the United Kingdom by adding “trans people, especially trans people of colour, are hit hardest by unemployment, homelessness, and domestic, sexual, and police violence… But the conversation always focuses on wealthy white cis women tweeting about toilets.”

Many have inferred that this last point was a thinly veiled stab at disgraced author J. K. Rowling.

Thorn began Philosophy Tube in 2013, as a response to a university fee hike introduced by the UK government the year prior. Despite the show evolving into a more dramatic affair in recent years, it has continued to explore philosophical and other issues relating to contemporary society and politics, among other subjects.

Thorn Takes Aim At Transphobia

 Taking to Twitter to announce the news, Thorn continued to speak on the subject of transgender discrimination in the United Kingdom by tweeting, “It’s so lovely to finally relax, to sleep well with sweet dreams and be at home in myself! But I’m also scared. Things are very, very bad for trans people in the UK and they’re getting worse.”

Thorn’s posts are supported by data from the Office For National Statistics released last year. These statistics show that more than one in four transgender people (28%) had experienced crime in the year ending March 2020, compared to just 14% of people whose gender identity was the same as the sex they were registered at birth.

“My existing following means I have now instantly become one of the most recognisable trans people in the country and I feel an enormous pressure to be ‘good at it’, like if I could only be clever enough, or pretty or funny or articulate enough, things would magically come right!”

Thorn continued by taking aim what she described as “overworked journalists [who] often don’t know much about our lives” but instead let “antifeminists and religious extremists feed the pseudoscience and fear mongering to their readers.

“In my view feminism isn’t a tea party with the Queen or a girlboss brunch with #femspirational CEOs, it’s our common struggle to be free.

“These are scary times, but ‘courage calls to courage everywhere and its voice cannot be denied,’” Thorn said in conclusion. “Even when other people make it hard, being trans is a gift. My love goes out to every trans person reading my words in Britain or overseas, especially those who can’t come out – yet!”