YouTuber Daniel Howell Comes Out During Pride But Is He Dating Phil?

Are Dan and Phil dating? Inside YouTuber Daniel Howell's dating with Phil Lester, now that Dan has come out as "basically gay."

One part of British comedy duo "Dan & Phil," 28-year-old Daniel Howell, "always wanted to upload this next video in the month of June" and indeed capitalized on Pride month to drop his latest YouTube video, which has already gathered 3.Nine views previously 19 hours.

Titled "Basically I'm Gay," the 45-minute doozy is captioned, "Let me tell you a queer little story about a boy named Dan." 

But wait so does that mean Daniel is gay? And are he and collaborator Phil Lester dating? Here's what we all know.

Is Daniel Howell gay?

The humorous Brit begins his video by making issues fairly transparent. "Spoiler alert: I'm not straight," he says to his 6.5 Million subscribers. "We live in a heteronormative world ... which means people are presumed to be straight. If you're not, then at some point you have to 'come out'."

But he doesn't seem to assume gay is the id for him. "I'm pretty sure no one who knows me thinks I'm straight," he continues, "so I don't need to 'come out' as much as clarify what the hell is going on because here I am, age 27, and my sexual preference is still a vague, debatable, confusing, impenetrable mystery."

[Editor's note: Daniel's birthday was once on June 11, and he is now 28 — however given the tweet during which he admitted he was looking ahead to June to submit, it is onerous to inform when this video was filmed.]

Rather, he struggles to search out the id label that fits him and prefers the time period "queer," even though he's growing increasingly more comfortable with the word "gay."

"Whatever heterosexual is, I ain't it," he added. "Really, if you ask me, I don't think anyone is totally straight. I think there's a lot of social and emotional issues getting in the way of yet-to-be-understood feelings of attraction that can be very flexible." "Am I totally gay? No," he concluded.

Are Dan and Phil dating in 2019?

Dan quickly gained a whirlwind of responses on social media — and his video nonetheless sits in first place on YouTube's trending page as of writing this newsletter. "I'm so proud of you," one fan tweeted. "I know a lot of people are gonna get helped by this video, thank you so much."

"Daniel Howell just ended biphobia," added another. But many of us are extra fascinated by whether or not he and his longtime collaborator, Phil Lester are dating. Midway thru his 45-minute video, Daniel addresses his more-than-friendship.

After a gloomy length by which he experienced bullying from schoolmates ("That was the first time I'd heard that word," he recalled. "Well, I don't know what the heck gay means, but apparently it means people kick you on the floor, so that ain't good"), he took solace in "the magic of the internet" and met Phil.

"Obviously we were more than friends, but it was more than just romantic," he goes on. "This is someone who genuinely liked me. I trusted them. And for the first time since I was a tiny child I actually felt safe...we are real best friends. Companions through life. Like, actual soul mate."

But Dan stops short of completely confirming their relationship. "I bet so many people wanna know so much more about that," he says, foreseeing you, dear reader, "which, honestly, I take as a compliment, but here's the thing... I'm somebody who wants to keep the details of my personal life private. So is Phil."

He went on, "Lots of people these days — thanks to social media — want to share and monetize every aspect of their life and then as soon as something changes suddenly it's this huge drama because everyone got invested in the story of your life like it's a soap opera...I don't want that."

Can we blame him? Honestly, no. And it appears, neither can Twitter. "Let's talk about how truly beautiful Dan and Phil's relationship is," one person commented. "Who TF cares about its status. They make each other so genuinely happy and they support each other unconditionally. They're soulmates."

"Please respect Dan and Phil's personal relationship," wrote some other. "He made it clear that it is too special for consumption. This is not a free for all. They deserve privacy, love, and respect. Dan trusts us with this part of his life; don't make him sorry."

Watch Dan's "Basically I'm Gay" video here. Happy pride!

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