Homosexual. Not a word often uttered with positive connotations around these parts, even though the gay and lesbian community makes up roughly 10% of the population.
I am still new to Butte, but the contrast in the acceptance of the gay community compared to Connecticut, where I am from, is readily apparent. I notice a distinct lack of rainbow flags and fierce divas.
I was recently informed that “National Coming Out Day” is October 11th. I was also told the event was ignored by the Tech community and the city of Butte, other than an article in the Montana Standard last year by Pete Shea. N.C.O.D is an important cause for the gay and lesbian community and I am here to share a little of the history of the event.
October 11th commemorates the day of an important gay and lesbian march in Washington. The Human Rights Campaign describes the early days
“On Oct. 11, 1987, half a million people participated in the March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. This was the second such demonstration in our nation’s capital and the first display of the NAMES Project Quilt, remembering those who have died from AIDS.”
Unfortunately there was a tragic event in the gay community on October 12, 1998, which is another reason this date is so important to activists. That was the day Matthew Shepard died, after being savagely beaten and tortured while a student at the University of Wyoming. Pete Shea of the Montana Standard explains the need for National Coming Out Day, and sums the situation up nicely
“Schools are places of bullying and terrorism, not just for teens who identify publicly as LGBT, but also for those whom others perceive to be gay because of some physical or personality trait. Homosexuality is still a topic that we dare not discuss openly, so we hide the topic and we hide those who are "it." Is it surprising that the suicide rate for gay teens is three or four times greater than for teens who don't have to struggle with sexual identity issues?”
The benefit of National Coming Out Day is that is allows to have a discourse on a subject we rarely discuss, especially here in Montana. When October 11th rolls around, try and support your peers in the LGBT community!
I think this is a thoughtful piece. It should be getting to the time when the Montana's students' newspaper can honestly claim their ignorance was just a matter of ignorance and they want nothing more than to correct that problem. A small article in the student' paper is called for and this is just about what it needs to say. We are mooving on, and pray god things don't go backward,
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