Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) students and their allies rallied in the EMU Amphitheater Monday to celebrate National Coming Out Day, an internationally recognized civil awareness day founded in 1987 to address issues surrounding the LGBTQ community.
Kicking off before noon, the rally served as a forum for closeted LGBTQ members to embrace and express their sexual orientations to an accepting and inclusive audience. Curious passers-by heard various coming out stories and were beckoned by organizers to make buttons and soak up the queer atmosphere.
The assembly was just one of many events scheduled for Coming Out Week, a week-long celebration presented by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Educational Support Services (LGBTESS) Program on campus to facilitate openness and acceptance of LGBTQ community members.
LGBTESS Program director Chicora Martin hopes the rally and subsequent Coming Out Week events will help show students that some of their friends and mentors are, possibly to their surprise, part of the campus LGBTQ community.
“It is an event where people who are out can be visible,” Martin said. “If you know someone associated with LGBTQA, the more likely you are to accept people from that community.”
The purpose of the week’s events, the director was quick to contend, is not to manufacture consent or convert students, but simply to create an exhibition for those new to the University community about the presence of LGBTQ students on campus.
“It’s not about changing anyone’s mind,” Martin said. “It’s just a good way to say to newcomers, ‘This is who we are.’ It’s part of the U of O way.”
Coming Out Day’s proximity to the beginning of the school year has worked in the LGBTESS Program’s favor, making a case to freshmen and returning students that the LGBTQ community deserves respect, an expectation that Martin hopes will hold up until June.
“It’s good that this (event) is right at the beginning of the year,” Martin said. “This is really our kickoff; it’s about setting the tone for the rest of the year.”
Ryan Riddick, events coordinator for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Alliance (LGBTQA), helped to organize the rally and other events such as the upcoming dance on Friday, which is held to celebrate a week of hard work. Riddick was elated to see so many students show up in front of the EMU on Monday with such kind words to say.
“It was fantastic and quite a few students showed up,” Riddick said. “We got a great response from people who aren’t part of this community … and we have had a record numbers of volunteers.”
University junior Tovah Blumenthal stood outside the EMU’s Club Sports office late Monday afternoon to catch a chartered bus to Queer Skate, a Lady Gaga-themed roller skating derby put on for Coming Out Week. Adorned with a tie-dye rainbow headband, Blumenthal reminisced about how it felt to travel from a conservative upbringing to the very acceptant LGBTQ community at the University.
“I am from a very conservative small town and I came here to a very open, supportive campus,” Blumenthal said. “I think we are able to re-establish ourselves here, to say ‘we are here, and we are just like you.’”
In recognition of Coming Out Week, the Emerald published an “Outlist” yesterday in honor of every LGBTQ student, faculty, staff and alumni who wished to be publicly acknowledged.
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