Earlier this week, a revelation shook the gaming world: popular streamer Sketch was revealed to have created queer content on OnlyFans prior to making it big on Twitch.

“Two years ago, I did some stuff,” said Sketch, real name Kylie Cox, in a livestream addressing the controversy. “I’m sorry if you’ve seen some of the stuff; you know I’m a changed person.”

The news came as a shock to his fanbase, many of whom are straight, cis men. While some shunned or ridiculed him, other seemed to take the moment as a learning opportunity and even develop — *gasp* — a sense of empathy.

Fellow influencer and one of Sketch’s fans Carter Folian took to TikTok to explain how learning about Sketch’s past was changing his worldview.

“I was thinking about the Sketch situation last night and I realized that I still like Sketch. I still enjoy him as a person, as a streamer, as an entertainer,” Folian said. “I found it weird that my thoughts didn’t change on my opinion on Sketch even though he did other stuff two years ago. So I kind of thought to myself, ‘Why would I think about any other person on this planet like that?’”

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Folian went on to apologize for posting videos making fun of Ava Kris Tyson, a frequent collaborator with YouTube giant MrBeast who came out as trans last year. (Folian still misgendered her in the process, but if we take him at his word, at least he’s trying to do better.)

“I’ve kind of learned as an individual I can’t be so close-minded with other groups of people,” he said. “You are who you are, you love who you love, and there’s no changing that.”

“From the bottom of my heart, for all my past videos, I’m deeply sorry for putting that out on the internet,” Folian concluded.

https://www.tiktok.com/@cartdabart/video/7389788813435882795?

While Folian did get some gentle ribbing from his comments section (“Man discovers empathy & equality,” one commenter quipped, while another wrote, “Bro I realized this when I was like 6.”), generally, people were glad to see him mature and open his mind to accepting queer people. 

Folian wasn’t the only Sketch fan to be changing their tune on LGBTQ+ people: folks across the internet noticed that many people, especially young people, were genuinely learning and growing from Sketch’s example, realizing that queer people are just as worthy of respect as anybody else. 

Others pointed out that this is exactly what marginalized folks mean when they say representation matters. Often, the best way for people to learn that there’s nothing wrong with being queer is to see a queer figure in their own life. Apparently, for plenty of people, that figure is Sketch — though, for the record, Sketch hasn’t clarified if he identifies as queer, or if he just created OnlyFans content with other men due to outside factors.

Regardless, a legion of impressionable fans learning to respect LGBTQ+ folks can’t be anything but positive. Thanks, Sketch, for changing young minds — even if the circumstances were out of your control.