Holland talks about his tough experience on coming out

In a recent interview with YouTube channel PRAN, the first openly gay K-pop artist Holland shared his experience on coming out and how hard it was.

He starts off the interview by revealing the first time he came out, "I first came out to my friend who I thought I was close with and someone I liked when I was in middle school but rumors spread quickly and as it did, my school life started to become very difficult. I was bullied all the time without a single day off and wanted to die every single day. At the time, there was no one who told me 'you didn't do anything wrong', nor was there anyone who supported and comforted me."

Afterward, Holland also spoke about his debut track "Neverland" and its MV. He said, "'Neverland' is about a boy who couldn't be honest about his love and was discriminated, thus desiring to move to another place where he can express all the love he wants. Neverland in 'Peter Pan' is a dream-like place - a place where no one says anything about my love life. It isn't like I can get married just like everyone else and even though I don't know what will happen, I wanted to say it's going to be okay."

He continued, "I was at first on the side of not necessarily putting in the kiss scene in the MV. However, after hearing that same-sex kiss scene is considered 19+, I decided to do it. I put in the kiss scene because I thought if the song happened to do well, people would be curious to know why it's 19+. I think it should change."

Holland wrapped up the interview by giving words of encouragement who are in a similar position as him. "I believe many people are still troubled and worried about coming out. It really isn't wrong, and I sincerely hope no one makes poor decisions due to other people. I would like to say that we need to be more confident in order to speak a bit louder of the love we experience."

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