Spend some time in other parts of the world, and you’ll realize that being totally transparent with family is scary no matter the culture. It’s especially difficult when you’re a young gay man in Japan — where homophobia is just as rampant as in any other country — who’s ready to finally come out to his mom. That’s the intensely courageous conversation Ellen Page got to be in the room for when she traveled to Tokyo with her best friend for her new Viceland show Gaycation, which was released online today (the season premieres March 2 at 10 p.m.). In its first episode, Page tours the city’s gayborhood, after which she’s invited to shadow a man who works for a company that rents out actual people, usually for things like weddings and funerals. Except now that company has found that more and more LGBTQ people are in need of a stand-in friend to serve as their support system while coming out. It’s a strangely staged setup to reveal something so personal — which Page acknowledges while sharing with the young man why it was so important to her to live her truth — but even when things briefly go as bad as feared, being so uncomfortably close to that level of emotional vulnerability somehow makes it all the more moving. The young man’s story begins around the 33-minute mark.
Ellen Page Traveled to Japan to Help a Young Man Come Out to His Mom
