GLBT Community celebrates Home-Coming Out

Homecoming Week may have made Wayne State’s campus green and gold with pride, but the GLBT community also displayed their pride with a rainbow of colors and through several events to celebrate National Coming Out Day.

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Alliance Co-President Tiffany Thompson said that National Coming Out Day originated 21 years ago when over 600,000 members of the GLBT community and their allies marched in Washington D.C. for GLBT rights.

The following year was the first National Coming Out Day, which has been observed on Oct. 11 since then.

Both Thompson and Co-President Philip McDonald were born around that era and are proud to continue the tradition.  

In honor of National Coming Out Day, the GLBTA organized events such as a lecture on homosexuality and religion given by Reverend Mark G. Bidwell of the Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit and an informal “Coffee Chat” in Gullen Mall.

On Oct. 11, during the Homecoming tailgate party, the group will host a picnic from 9 a.m. to noon in lot 50 of the Matthaei building.

McDonald, who came out five years ago, said that last year he used the day to come out to co-workers and responses were “overwhelmingly positive.”

He said similar positive reactions are all over campus.

“Overall, the administration has been really helpful to us in organizing events and overall the campus is fairly tolerant,” he said.

According to a research study conducted by the Gender and Sexuality Resource Community, GLBT students feel safe at WSU overall, though there are still lingering problems of in tolerance and discrimination, he said.

English Department Assistant Professor Simone Chess, who identifies herself as “queer,” said that she is “thrilled to support Wayne’s GLBTA.”

Chess said that, usually at most campuses, faculty and staff organize "queer" events.

“But here at Wayne, it’s really a student led movement and that’s pretty exciting to see and be apart of,” she said.

Thompson, who’s been out for a year and a half, said she also had a positive experience coming out to others and believes coming out is a process that one goes through for the rest of his or her life.

McDonald agreed that the act is one of progression, but also said, “We in no way advocate that people should come out unless they are absolutely comfortable doing that.

“It’s a personal thing and it’s individual for everyone.”

Comments

1 comments

Tiffany Thompson

Fri Oct 10 2008 16:12

It was actually supposed to be over 600,000 people in the march on Washington, D.C..

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Verify you are human:

Enter the characters in the image above: