Queer Teens Are Using a Jason Derulo Song to Come Out on TikTok

In late 2015, the multi-talented dancer, singer, and dirty-talk enthusiast Jason Derulo dropped “Get Ugly,” the fourth single from his fourth studio album, the aptly titled Everything is 4. The track zoomed up the charts, soundtracking bar mitzvahs and dorm parties across the country. Now, half a decade since its initial release, the song has found a heartwarming second act: helping queer teens come out to their friends and family. “This girl straight, this girl not,” Derulo’s voice intones in the clips as the teens point first to another, then to themselves, transforming what was once a vaguely fetishizing line into a tool of queer manifestation.

What makes many of the videos so adorable is that both parties know the song. They bop to the beat, apparently thinking that this is just a usual TikTok dance video. Then comes the key line, and suddenly, through just a simple point, a dance video becomes a coming out story.

In other videos, the reveal is planned — though what these entries lack in surprise, they make up for with the warmth of clear, unwavering, parental affirmation.

Some parents, on the other hand, don’t seem to get it. That’s okay, hopefully, because for some, making a TikTok coming out video is just the first step of communicating to their loved ones who they are.

Few things on the internet match the beauty of that split second when one sister realizes what the other is truly saying.

And in perhaps the most thrilling of the “Get Ugly” TikToks, we see two friends surprise each other by coming out at the same time, in the same way.

They even express mutual feelings for each other. If that’s not love in the time of coronavirus, I don’t know what is.

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