I saw this article on one of my friends blogs and I was suprised to learn that was a day to actually "come out". It seems like more of a celebration than a struggle, which I thought that many people felt about the day they decided to "come out".
Here is the article:
This Sunday, October 11, is the 21st Annual observance of National Coming Out Day. It's now an internationally recognized day, with events all over the world aimed at promoting equality and awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues.
Here in the U.S., National Coming Out Day is managed and promoted by the Human Rights Campaign: This year HRC is running a "Conversations from the Heart" PR campaign encouraging everyone to have candid conversations with family and friends about where they stand on LGBT equality issues. Check the HRC events map for a National Coming Out Day event in your community. If you can get to Washington, the main event is this weekend, October 9-11: Visit NationalEqualityMarch.com for more info and a full schedule of events.
Why October 11? National Coming Out Day honors the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights and the first display of the NAMES Project Quilt. The first official observance of National Coming Out Day was held one year later, on October 11, 1988, recognition that a national LGBT equality movement had to have visibility if it was to be a success. As Harvey Milk put it, a decade earlier, back in 1978:
“I cannot prevent anyone from getting angry, or mad, or frustrated. I can only hope that they’ll turn that anger and frustration and madness into something positive, so that two, three, four, five hundred will step forward, so the gay doctors will come out, the gay lawyers, the gay judges, gay bankers, gay architects … I hope that every professional gay will say ‘enough’, come forward and tell everybody, wear a sign, let the world know. Maybe that will help.”
This year the Bisexual Index and other organizations are reminding us of the B in "LGBT" that sometimes gets forgotten by gay rights groups: Click through for a "Hello, I'm Bisexual" badge like the one above for your website, blog, or Facebook page, then proudly display it this week in the leadup to National Coming Out Day.
Whether you're heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, take the opportunity this Sunday (and every day) to come out in support of LGBT equality.
Perhaps the internet has helped to open doors for people to see how 'not alone' they are in terms of sexuality and makes 'coming out' less of a trauma. I come from an era where it had to be a carefully tended secret - jobs could be lost, families could be broken up.
ReplyDeleteDo you feel it's healthier today?