I'm involved with
my campus' version of a
Gay/Straight Alliance. We've been talking about what we're planning on doing for some activities for
Coming Out Day, on October 11. We're doing a little mini-week of activities, three days of movies, speakers, bands, and lovely, happy
fun stuff.
One of our activities is actually *on* Coming Out Day. We're planning on having a panel come to talk about what it is like or what it means to come out in a number of fashions, from coming out as Christian to coming out as gay. We're having some clergy come in (we *are* a religious school), some faculty, and some people from the community. However, we were figuring that it would be really important to have a couple of students on the panel to talk about what it means to come out while a student.
I'm thinking of being one of those students. You don't catagorically have to come out to be on the panel, but I know myself, and I know the forum, and I know that I would. I'm not sure whether this is a good idea or not. I'm not even sure if it's a BIG deal or not. I mean, all of my friends from college know. Some of my friends from high school do. Even one of my cousins knows. So, is it really that big of a deal?
Then again, I go to a school where I was harassed merely for suspicion of gayness, where an openly gay student recieved death threats only three years ago.
I don't know what I'm doing. I don't even know if I'll do it. But it's a kind of big deal for me that I'm even considering it. It means that I've come a long, long way in the last three years. Thank God.