YouTuber comes out as bisexual after discovering her best friend is anti-LGBT

A YouTuber with millions of followers has publicly come out as bisexual after one of her closest friends told her she was going to hell because of her sexuality.

The social platform is full of wonderful coming out videos — Elle Mills revealed she was bisexual last year, twins Luc and Cooper Coyle came out as gay in June and Ellen Stephenson revealed she was transgender – but this was different.

Andrea Russett came out to her 7.5 million Twitter followers and 4 million Instagram fans the day before Bi Visibility Day because, she said, her best friend Sandra Poenar told her she believed that queer people go to hell.

In a lengthy post, the 23-year-old wrote that “Sandra and I had a very close, very public friendship. Because of that, I feel it’s best I just address this so we can all move on.

“I came out to Sandra as bisexual four years ago. (Surprise! Yeah. Not exactly how I planned to come out publicly, but s**t happens I guess).

“Anyway, she was the very first person I came out to. Following this, as I came out to more and more friends, she was always there to give me advice on girls I liked.

“She sat with me while I cried about the thought of coming out to my parents. She knew me better than anyone in my life. She was family to me.”

But, the online star explained, Sandra had views which she had no idea about.

“Over the last year, my friend who is openly gay attended a nondenominational church with Sandra. On the drive home, he was asking questions about her views on religion, one of them being, ‘So do you think I’m going to hell because I’m gay?’

“Sandra responded, ‘Yes.’ She went on to tell him that he can be ‘saved’ with conversion therapy.

“When he shared this information with me I was… at a loss for words. But still, I knew I needed to ask her directly. I needed to hear it from her mouth. So I did just that.”

And this was when Andrea found out the truth.

“I straight up asked Sandra, ‘Do you think that because I’m bisexual, I’m going to hell?’ and she looked me dead in the eyes and said yes,” the YouTuber wrote.

“She went on to tell me that she believes being gay [is] a choice. I asked her [if] these have always been her views and she said yes.

“I will never find the words to properly describe [the] hurt I felt in that moment. She was one of the only people I trusted in my life.”

Andrea, who has appeared in films including Sickhouse and Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, said she was not questioning everything about her relationship with Sandra.

“And now all I can do is rethink every conversation we had, every situation in which I was with a girl around her, and wonder what she really thought of me. Wonder if she was judging me,” she wrote.

“It is a very deep and personal hurt that I do not plan on acknowledging or discussing after this post. I am heartbroken and confused. I don’t know why she chose to move in with me while having these beliefs.

“I don’t know that I even want to know at this point,” she added. “I’m choosing to move forward and focus on the people in my life who love and accept me for who I am.

“And to anyone who is struggling with anything similar in their life, you are not alone. You are not any less of a person because of who you may choose to love.

“‘How you make others feel about themselves says a lot about you.’ Love is love.”

Andrea was also able to see the positives, tweeting: “Let’s focus on the silver lining! I’m out publicly!! 🙂 I have dreamt of coming out for years, and despite the circumstances, I’m THANKFUL.”