NSU’s Gay-Straight Alliance is celebrating National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11 by extending it to Coming Out Week.
In past years, GSA has celebrated National Coming Out Day by holding small demonstrations on campus. This is the second year that the organization has worked with the Office of Student Activities to hold a week-long celebration leading up to Saturday’s event.
Nathaniel Berger, adviser of GSA said that the events of Coming Out Week unite NSU students of all different sexual orientations.
“Whether you identify on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) spectrum, identify as an LGBT ally, or simply are interested in learning more about the LGBT community, you are welcome to attend these events,” he said.
For 25 years, National Coming Out Day has supported the LGBT community. It was founded by Robert Eichberg, a psychologist, and Jean O’Leary, a New York politician, to celebrate anyone who publicly identifies as bisexual, gay, lesbian or transgender.
For some students, the importance of National Coming Out Day hits home.
“I came out as a lesbian at a pretty young age and was lucky enough to have a community where most people accepted me fairly quickly without too much question,” said Sara Staley, sophomore psychology major and president of GSA. “A couple of my friends did stop talking to me and eventually drifted away because they were uncomfortable with my sexuality.”
Staley said her coming out experience was the toughest when some of her own family members didn’t accept her.
“They told me it was ‘just a phase.’ When it became clear to them that it wasn’t, they started talking to me less and ended up cutting me off, and I haven’t spoken to them in about two years now,” she said.
Staley knows many people who have had it worse than her.
“I had to see friends be thrown out of their houses and disowned by their mothers or fathers, and it’s memories of those friends and their experiences that really make Coming Out Day special to me,” she said. “Nobody should have to be afraid of telling people who they love because friends will stop liking them, or their family members will cut them off, and straight allies shouldn’t have to face adversity because they choose to support love,” she said.
The celebration started with the “NOH8 Campaign” on Oct. 2. The campaign gave students, faculty and staff the opportunity to have the NOH8 logo painted on their cheeks.
Berger said, “The photos of the NOH8 Campaign will be posted on the windows of the Don Taft University Center to demonstrate the openness and welcoming community we have here at NSU.”
The next event was “NSU’s Coming Out Week Kick Off – Laugh When It’s Serious,” which took place on Oct. 6. The symposium was hosted by the president of School of Humanities and Social Sciences’ Equality Club.
The week will continue with Blue Jeans Day on Oct. 7.
“We are asking the campus community to wear their favorite pair of jeans in solidarity and support of the LGBT community,” Berger said.
On Oct. 8, GSA will host the “Out and Proud Panel Discussion” for students and staff to provide their viewpoints on the LGBT community. The discussion will be held in the second floor lounge of the UC from noon to 1 p.m. The panelists will be GSA members, faculty, and a member of the Equality Club.
Staley will be a participant on the panel.
“I’m looking forward to answering questions and seeing what the turnout will be,” she said.
Following this event is the “Coming Out Poetry Slam” on Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. in the UC Pit. The poetry slam is presented by the Black Student Union and will be followed by an ice cream social.
The week’s festivities will conclude Oct. 10 with the Coming Out Day Celebration, featuring free food, music and activities from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Alvin Sherman Library Quad.
“Although the actual National Coming Out Day is on Oct. 11, which is a Saturday, we decided to host the event on a Friday because we wanted to make sure as many people as possible would be able to participate in the activities,” Staley said.
Attendees can participate in Messy Twister, featuring a game mat covered in wet paint, and Guess Who’s Gay, in which a group of straight and gay students will answer personality questions from the audience, who will guess who identifies as gay and who identifies as straight. Staley said that the goal of Guess Who’s Gay is to break stereotypes of what characteristics are considered “gay.”
“The game does a really great job of hitting home on the idea that you can’t just look at somebody and think right away that they’re a member of the LGBT community just based on their appearance, just like you can’t always automatically assume that a person is straight,” she said. “It’s a great way challenge and attempt to eliminate stereotypical patterns of thought.”
Another activity that will be held is called “Closets are for Clothes, not People.” A door will be set up in the Quad, which people can sign and leave their handprint.
“Last year, we had so many people sign it that we actually had to get a large sheet of paper saying ‘National Coming Out Day’ and laid it out on the ground so more people would be able to sign,” she said.
Additionally, there will be a paint station so participants can decorate the Coming Out Day shirts, students will receive throughout the week.
Staley said that as the GSA president, one of her biggest goals is to make NSU a safe place for people of all backgrounds and sexual orientations.
“One of the best ways to achieve this goal is through education and being more informed. Coming Out Week is a way for students who are already interested in helping with LGBT rights to find out how they can be more involved in that field of activism. It gives students who maybe aren’t supportive of the LGBT community a chance to reexamine their views and maybe even change their minds,” she said.
She said this happened last year with a student who came to one of the Coming Out Week events.
“Earlier in the week, a student spoke to me about how his family had raised him to dislike LGBT people and told him they were ‘unnatural’ and didn’t deserve love or equal rights. At the end of the week, after spending time with me at a couple of the GSA events, I caught him signing our sign near the end of the Coming Out Event,” she said. “It really showed me what great potential Coming Out Week has.”
Berger said it’s important for all students to be involved in and aware of National Coming Out Week.
“The events throughout the week will not only educate the students on LGBT, but also to show how open and welcoming of a campus we are,” he said. “In order for us to truly be one NSU, we must embrace and celebrate all of our differences.”
Staley said the events give students an opportunity to see how, regardless of sexual preference, we are all just human beings currently making our way through college.
“Some of us are LGBT, some of us are allies, some of us may not even know who we are yet, but at the end of the day we’re all Sharks, and being able to unite under that identity gives us a chance to understand and love each other,” she said.
For more information, please contact sea-board@nova.edu.
