Arts & Entertainment

Ellen DeGeneres gifts $10,000 to gay BYU student who came out in viral commencement speech

Matthew Easton says he went public with his sexuality in honor of a student who committed suicide

Published

7 years ago

May 7, 2019

**Matthew Easton** and **Ellen DeGeneres** on ‘Ellen.’

Matthew Easton, the Brigham Young University valedictorian who came out during his commencement speech, appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” where he emotionally explained why he chose to come out publicly at graduation.

Easton, who is a 24-year-old political science major, was already out to his friends and family but he came out publicly in his graduation speech at BYU’s College of Family, Home and Social Science. The speech has received more than 200,000 views on YouTube.

“This is a new chapter in my life. I’m graduating and I want to live more authentically, live more honestly,” Easton told DeGeneres. “And more than that, I want to give visibility to the other students who are gay who maybe aren’t so ready to come out … I was so ready to do it.”

Easton explained BYU’s strict honor code to DeGeneres, which prevented her from asking certain details about his private life. He says physical contact between two people of the same sex, even a handshake, could be seen as an inappropriate gesture and get a student expelled.

He also says he decided to come out publicly in honor of a gay BYU student he knew who came out on Facebook. The student faced intense backlash and ended up committing suicide.

“I saw him do that, and I thought, ’Is that my future?” Easton tearfully recalls. “Is that what I’m heading toward?’ So I thought, if I came out at graduation, maybe a student like me—a freshman—gets to know that my future is something brighter. We can succeed. We can do what we want, accomplish our dreams.”

Easton has plans to move to Salt Lake City and hopes to get more involved in the LGBTQ community. He also is interested in heading to D.C. one day to put his political science degree to use. At the end of the interview, DeGeneres presents Easton with a check for $10,000.

Watch below.

Up Next

Watch: first teaser for CW’s ‘Batwoman’

Don't Miss

The campiest looks at the Met Gala red carpet

FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM

Online Culture

Clavicular charged in alleged rape of teenage influencer

Online personality’s real name is Braden Peters

Published

19 hours ago

September 23, 2026

Joe Reberkenny

Braden Peters a.k.a. "Clavicular" (Screen capture via NBC News/YouTube)

Online personality Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Peters, has been accused of rape.

According to NBC, Aleksandra Vasilevna Mendoza, an 18-year-old influencer known online as Alorah or Alorah Ziva, accused Peters of sexual assault, and the case is making its way through the court system.

The alleged incident occurred on May 23, 2025, when Mendoza was 17.

According to a criminal complaint from the Chatham (Mass.) Police Department, Peters called her an Uber to his family’s home. Once there, he allegedly got her drunk on vodka while they livestreamed on Twitch and then raped her. His mother and grandmother were allegedly in the house.

The documents allege Clavicular committed rape, drugging a person for sexual intercourse, and procuring and providing liquor to a person under 21.

According to court documents acquired by NPR, Mendoza began communicating with Peters on Instagram, where he paid her to appear on his livestreams to help her “make her name known on social media.”

According to those documents, Peters arranged for the minor to come to Cape Cod home to participate in a videostream for his 437,000 followers on Kick, 1.2 million followers on TikTok, and more than 1 million followers on Instagram.

At his home, Peters allegedly instructed Mendoza to say she was 18 on his videostream and to claim the alcohol on camera was water instead of vodka. Mendoza said she felt peer-pressured to drink the spirit and that she became noticeably intoxicated after a couple of drinks.

The allegations go on to state that after stopping the stream, Peters and Mendoza kissed on a couch and then had sex in his bed without her consent. Mendoza said she did not receive a sexual assault forensic exam after the incident. NPR does not name alleged victims of sexual assault.

The charges come months after Mendoza sued Peters in Miami, accusing him of sexual battery in connection with the events of May 2025. The civil lawsuit also separately alleges that he injected her face with a non-FDA-approved fat-dissolving substance during a November livestream in Florida.

Peters is known for his “looksmaxxing” concept of vanity, which is at the core of his online presence. The “looksmaxxing” culture he has helped cultivate combines elements of incel culture and heterosexuality, with the stated goal of attracting the opposite sex. He has gone as far as to say he has undergone “bonesmashing,” or hitting his own face with a hammer; taken anabolic steroids to more rapidly grow muscle; and used crystal meth as an appetite suppressant.

At the same time, looksmaxxing has been described as having elements of homoeroticism, with “looksmaxxers” appearing more concerned with impressing other men than women. Peters has multiple times pointed to openly gay actor Matt Bomer as the gold standard for male facial aesthetics.

Peters’s arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 14.