National Coming Out Day

[Lee]

WASHINGTON — “Talk About It” will be the theme of this year’s National Coming Out Day, to be celebrated on Oct. 11, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation announced today. HRCF’s Coming Out Project is an ongoing campaign to empower gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and allied Americans to live openly and honestly about their lives.

“Every single time we talk about our lives as GLBT Americans, we are another step closer to equality,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “Each word helps build bridges that change hearts and minds — and eventually our laws.”

A poll of GLBT Americans last year showed that startling amounts of people not only conceal their sexual orientation or gender identity from people in their lives, but many people who consider themselves to be “out” also refrain from speaking to others about GLBT issues. Among the findings of the poll: only 3 percent of members of the GLBT community are out to their doctors, and less than half are out to their bosses at work.

“Obviously, coming out for the first time is important for leading a whole and complete life, but we also want to help encourage and empower people to talk openly about their lives each and every day,” said Mark Shields, director of the Coming Out Project.

Shields recently began as director of the Coming Out Project. Previously, he had served as deputy director of media relations at HRC, where he helped develop the organization’s messages and provided information and resources to reporters and news outlets.

The Coming Out Project is particularly focusing on supportive straight people and working to give them resources and opportunities to voice their support for equality.

“We will only achieve equality by growing the number of people who stand with us,” said Shields. “Every time a straight person speaks out against an anti-gay joke, or joins a gay-straight alliance, they are having a coming out experience. We want to honor that, and make sure it happens more often.”

In the coming weeks, new resources and materials will be made available and the Coming Out Project will continue to mobilize around Coming Out Day, but it is also working to help people be “out” every single day.

http://www.hrc.org/Template.cfm?Sect...entDisplay.cfm

Not quite sure i understand the need for this but whatever floats your boat i guess.

Did anyone on GWW know that today was national coming out day?

Regards,

Lee

[dalimili]

It's strange to come out just because you prefer to fuck men... I mean... when you think about it a bit more, it's strange we have to come out at all; people don't like to say who they voted for in previous elections saying "that's too personal" and on the other hand I am expected to come out and say how gay I am and how proud I am...

Am I considered gay if:
1. I like to fuck men
2. I don't live a gay lifestlye
3. I don't have gay friends or buddies
4. I am outed and have never been in the closet

[Lee]

It's strange to come out just because you prefer to fuck men... I mean... when you think about it a bit more, it's strange we have to come out at all; people don't like to say who they voted for in previous elections saying "that's too personal" and on the other hand I am expected to come out and say how gay I am and how proud I am...

Am I considered gay if:
1. I like to fuck men
2. I don't live a gay lifestlye
3. I don't have gay friends or buddies
4. I am outed and have never been in the closet

Thats what i mean, this is a Human Rights organization, in effect, labelling individuals as gay, shouldnt everyone be treated the same whether gay or straight by these people?

Regards,

Lee

[longboardjim]

i've never understood the logic of "comming out" i don't see straight teens suddenly bursting into chant ..."i'm straight! , i'm here! , get use to it!"...
i believe in "sexual freedom" for everyone but then again i can see the logic of goverment in the fact that gay couples ( male/male ~ female/female ) do not reproduce and the entire U.S tax system would collapse if we didn't have future tax payer$

sincerely ~ ..."in this life one thing counts , in the bank large amounts , charities fine subscribe to mine , you got to pick a pocket or two"... :goof:

[citiboyz]

Did anyone on GWW know that today was national coming out day?
Lee

I never heard of it, until I saw this magazine cover announcing their appearance at the Las Vegas Coming Out Day. That got my attention.

[Goldie]

I guess I am in the minority on this site, but I actually did "come out" on National Coming Out Day 12 years ago.... I was still in college and the university had a table set up outside the student center... It took me all day to get the guts to approach it, but I finally did, and met up with someone who was a member of the gay student group. We talked awhile and became good friends (and eventually roomates, but never sexual partners... too bad, he was hot too!) He became a mentor of sorts, and introduced me to other gay students and I quickly got to realize it wasn't so bad being gay...

I've never used the day to come out to others, but it was a safe way for me in college to finally accept what I had known about myself for a long time...

So for me, National Coming Out Day was a good thing and I was just telling people here at work about it actually...

Marc

[Happysucks]

Not sure what day I came out but I did know about today.

This is the first year in like 7 years they didn't have Gay Day Busch Gardens on Coming out day.

[Jasun]

Straight people don't have to come out because they're already assumed to be straight. And no one has ever been ashamed to be straight or been afraid to come out as straight and to my knowledge, no one has ever had to agonize about telling their parents that they're straight.

Gay people have to do all that and more.

I thought I was past it all. I mean, I'm so out that even the guy at the coffee shop knows. But on Saturday Night I was in northern California hanging out in Bishop with my buddies in my gay biker's group, and while walking down the street arm-in-arm with on of my friends, a guy rolls down the window of his pick up truck and yells "Homos!" out at us.

We all kinda laughed and looked at each other (I thought people stopped using words like that in 7th Grade), and said "Well, duh". But it was odd.. I haven't been cat-called in ages.

We still have a lot further to go if we think that we're past the point where we need to come out every day.

And WTF? 3% are out to their doctors? What the fuck is wrong with people?

[dalimili]

I'm not saying outing is a bad thing, it's just that I'm not sure if I should be forced to be outed. I have issues with that.

Who I fuck in the privacy of my home is my own business.

I shouldn't be cheered for being gay, I shouldn't be called names for being gay... I guess I hate the fact that it's such an issue and it suddenly concern everyone!

Fuck off, I mean, it's my bloody life and I don't need to be understood, I just want to be respected as a human being, not for being gay.

[Jasun]

Great.

but being gay isn't about who you're fucking.

I'm gay even when I don't have a dick in my mouth.

Being gay isn't what you "do" it's what you "are". And by staying in the closet, you're perpetuating the idea that being gay is just a dirty secret.

It's not.

Or, at the very least, it shoudln't be.

Thing only become normalized when they're not an issue, and by keeping it a big secret, you make it a big issue.

[gaystoryman]

If No One Knows You Are Gay, you make bigots appear to be right about gays.

If No One Knows You Are Gay, you let others fight your battles who have no stake in the outcome.

If No One Knows You Are Gay, you help foster the misconceptions that being gay is just about choice.

If No One Knows You Are Gay, you promote intolerance & discrimination because there is no one to tell them otherwise.

If No One Knows You Are Gay, you cannot change those around you, and they can't change those around them and on it goes, the cycle of intolerance, abuse, & discrimination borne out of ignorance, because no one knows you are gay.

If No One Knows You Are Gay, you lay yourself open to abuse. For fear of discovery does lead to becoming a victim.

If No One Knows You Are Gay, you deny yourself a full life of being who you are, instead of being who others would like you to be.

If No One Knows You Are Gay, you deny others the opportunity to know the real you.

If No One Knows You Are Gay, you are surrendering to those who would banish gays, who would make them second class citizens, who would abuse gays, and even kill them without even a fight.

If No One Knows You Are Gay, then how can anyone around you hear the cries of those being abused, of those being molested, of those being hated for being different, if no one is there to tell them?

If No One Knows You Are Gay, you are safe, until someone finds out.

[Happysucks]

[robin]

I knew that it was coming up but wasn't sure when. Not sure if Canada has a National Coming Out Day or not...

I'm out but can't remember what day or month it was -- If I thought long and hard I might be able to come up with the year -- it was a long gradual process or series of steps.

It was one of the best things that I ever did.

Staying in the closet was starting to have serious health problems for me. It also alowed me to take back my life and just be me.

When my old family doctor realized that I was gay he wouldn't do anything for me. Fortunately my partner and friends found me a doctor that was gay friendly and because I'm out to him we're able to talk about health issues more openly.

[Jasun]

I came out March Break 1988.

My first year of college.

Best decision I ever made.

[desslock]

When I was an 18 yr old freshman at the University of Texas, I attended a coming out workshop, and then came out to my family about a week later. That was in 1987, and gee, I sure haven't looked back.

Don't overinterpret Coming Out Day. It is not about advertising your sexual activity. It's about being honest with your identity.

A seventy-five year old sexually inactive man can still be gay and come out.

I can't emphasize enough that the subject of being out revolves around being honest. If your parents or co workers ask you in regular conversation what you did last weekend, you can honestly say that you and your bf went to the movies.

It's about honesty with those who you know, It's not about advertising sexual activity to strangers.

By the way, the US military's ban on gays serving in the military is inappropriate because it forces certain servicememers to be dishonest about themselves. Therefore, for moral reasons the policy should be canned because it encourages the unethical behavior of dishonesty.

Steve