About

You Think Coming Out As Gay Is Hard? Try Telling People X refers to a series of image macros using the phrasal template, "you think coming out as gay is hard? Try telling people X. See how much acceptance you get from the tolerant left," with "X" being recaptioned by something ironically more difficult than coming out as gay. The phrase was first posted to Whisper in 2017 and inspired variations over the following years.

Origin

Around late April 2017, a Whisper^[1] user posted an image macro showing an anime character in a maid outfit under the caption, "You think coming out as gay is hard? Try telling people you're aroused by anime girls. See how much acceptance you get from the 'tolerant' left," garnering 13 likes and 12 replies in six years (shown below).

The earliest known edit of the meme was posted by Tumblr^[2] user italianamericanfanpage on November 5th, 2020, and replaces "you're aroused by anime girls" with "you're Italian," garnering over 6,500 notes in just over two years (shown below).

Spread

Memes using the format became increasingly popularized over the following years. On August 21st, 2021, a Redditor posted a version of the meme to /r/SkyrimMemes,^[3] garnering over 4,000 upvotes in two years (shown below, left). On September 7th, Instagram^[4] user dopaminee_deficient posted a version of the meme about liking Little Caesar's pizza, garnering over 600 likes in two years (shown below, right). The meme was notably reposted by Instagram^[5] user yourlordandsaviorrealjesus in February 2023, garnering over 32,500 likes before deletion.

On October 23rd, 2021, Instagram^[6] user ihatekatebush posted a version of the meme about Pete Davidson, garnering over 5,700 likes in just over a year (shown below).

On September 23rd, 2022, a Redditor posted a version of the meme to /r/splatoon,^[7] garnering over 4,200 upvotes in five months (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References