Coming Out Still Matters At UHCL: National Coming Out Day
RACHAEL DEVINNEY
THE SIGNAL
Oct. 11 was National Coming Out Day, a day to celebrate coming out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) or as an LGBT ally.
UHCL celebrated this event Oct. 10 in Atrium I of the Bayou Building from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
National Coming Out Day is a day where “People are encouraged to take their next step in their coming out process, whatever that might be,” said Bruce Beisner, reverend of Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church.
For some, this may be coming out as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. For others this may be coming out as an ally of the LGBT community.
“Coming out is something we all do, in different ways,” Beisner said. “So it’s really a celebration of being who you are and being open and honest about that.”
The National Coming Out Day celebration on campus helped to get information about the LGBT community out to those who would normally not be a part of this community.
“[National Coming Out Day] is important because if it’s something we don’t know about or find important, we won’t go seek it out,” said Shaun Simon, coordinator for Women and LGBT Services. “So if it’s being provided to us and handed to us, it’s easier sometimes to swallow and digest and learn.”
National Coming Out Day was hosted by UHCL’s Unity Club. Unity is a student organization that “promotes equality on campus,” said Ashley Connelley, anthropology/sociology major and Unity president. “You do not have to be gay to be in the club; it’s open to everybody. I want it to be a safe place for allies, or people questioning, or people actually in the [LGBT] community.”
National Coming Out Day is important “for those who aren’t comfortable being out on campus and for those that may be in that questioning phase,” Simon said.
Simon believes it is important to show those students that there is a community out there that is willing to accept them as they are, which is what she is trying to promote with the LGBT services program.
“It’s not just LGBT people that have to come out; it’s allies that have to come out as well,” Simon said. She explained that it is important for allies to come out in support of the LGBT community to help spread the word about its needs.
“This is a day for [allies] to publicly show their support for equality,” Beisner said.
There were tables with photos of openly gay celebrities, tables with people’s coming out stories and a table where people could write positive messages on scraps of paper to tie to Unity’s balloon arch.
At noon there was a question and answer panel featuring Connelley, Simon and members of Unity Lisa Wilkins and Colden Snow, both anthropology majors. At 3 p.m. Beisner, an openly gay pastor, shared with students his coming out story.
“I never really came out,” Beisner said. “I was [labeled as] one of those people you probably know as obviously gay. So for me [National Coming Out Day] was about taking the negativity that some people put on that identity and turning that into a more positive thing.”
Simon said National Coming Out Day’s most important goal was to get people to “make the connection and then ask questions.”
