Monday, October 6, 1997
Out in the open
By Rachel Munoz
Daily Bruin Contributor
Visibility. Support. Identity. These are all descriptive terms
constantly repeated by participants when relating their personal
experiences during National Coming Out Week. During the next seven
days, approximately 10 percent of United States residents and UCLA
students who identify with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgendered community will celebrate their sexual
orientation.
National Coming Out Week, affectionately referred to by the
queer community as NCOW, begins today and will extend through
Sunday, October 12. A full week of events ranging from a religious
panel to a kiss-in, NCOW has evolved into a week of more than just
coming out. Support seems to be the blood running through each and
every gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer attendant.
Events planned for the week are co-chaired by the UCLA Gay and
Lesbian Association, (GALA) with help from other groups such as the
Women’s Resource Center, the Office of Residential Life and Lambda
Alumni.
"The biggest thing is the rally on Friday," explained Gala
co-chair Emily Houston. Kate Borenstein, a nationally recognized
transgendered author, will speak about freedom from gender
restriction. Also planned during the two-hour rally in Westwood
Plaza is a performance by the band Strange Fruit.
Houston mentioned the Friday night dinner-dance hosted by Lambda
Alumni and the Saturday night candlelight vigil as two
not-to-be-missed events.
For all students, Houston recommends the teach-in for "education
about gay issues." She believes that equality comes through
understanding.
Understanding gay issues was one of the many reasons that the
psychologist Richard Eichberg and the Human Rights Campaign founded
National Coming Out Day in 1987.
Ronnie Sanlo, director of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and
Transgender) Resource Center, recalls that 650,000 gay and lesbian
people descended on Washington DC in the 1978 national march. "They
were just coming out," Sanlo explains, "and each year we
commemorate that day."
NCOW originated 10 years ago but only as a single day of
celebration, held on October 11. Throughout the past seven or eight
years in its decade of existence, National Coming Out Day
transformed into National Coming Out Week. Sanlo explains that
October 11 is still regarded as the national holiday for lesbian
and gay people.
Each year the various organizations and individuals all over the
country involved in NCOW have high hopes of bringing together queer
people in hopes to create a sense of security.
Houston sees this same sentiment reflected in the goals of
UCLA’s NCOW.
"One of our goals is to make it so obvious that we are here. It
sets a tone for the rest of the year by letting people know we are
here," Houston explains.
Support clearly seems to be the most significant reason for
carrying on the traditions of NCOW. "People who are already out
make ourselves available to the people who are not out yet. We are
creating visibility for an invisible population," Sanlo said.
Michael Lopez, managing editor of Ten Percent, UCLA’s Queer
Magazine, also emphasizes the issue of visibility for those who
have not come out yet.
"NCOW is an opportunity for queer Bruins to be visible and
celebrate their identity with other students who they may not have
had the contact with otherwise," he explains.
Concern for new students is another issue addressed during NCOW.
Both Lopez and Sharif Youssef, the profile editor for Ten Percent,
feel that closeted homosexuals should view NCOW as a way to release
their true identity in a comfortable way.
"The queer community on campus is pretty disenfranchised," Lopez
explains. "We’re concerned about making space for residence hall
students to let them know there are people out there like
them."
Youssef also understands the difficulty of the coming-out
process and the emotions that surround such an event.
"Its a good opportunity for UCLA students to get the coming-out
process going," Youssef said.
This concern for new students and for students thinking about
coming out finds its answer in support groups. Coming out a is
momentous process that requires a sense of security.
"It’s not something that you have to hide from," Houston
explains. "If even one person realizes the support groups that are
out there then we have accomplished something."