Spectrum celebrated the 27th anniversary of National Coming Out Day by walking through rainbow-colored doors and sharing stories of coming out.
National Coming Out Day celebrates recognizing oneself as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or as an ally, and while Oct. 11 is the actual day, Spectrum held their celebration on Oct. 9 on the lawn of the L.A. Pittenger Student Center.
“National Coming Out Day brings solidarity to the LGBT community,” said Xaviera McMichael, Spectrum's PR director. “We do this event publicly so that people on campus and the community know that we are here.”
This year's Coming Out Day had double the participants from last year, with about 30 people from campus and from Muncie Outreach, Muncie’s only high school-aged LGBT support group.
The event started with an icebreaker game so the group could get to know one each other better and feel more comfortable before walking through the door.
“When the time came for us to have the opportunity to share our coming-out stories, it went better than we expected,” McMichael said. “Almost everyone who was there shared something.”
McMichael said that some of the most powerful stories came from the kids who were part of Outreach.
“Many of them are not out to their parents because of their attitudes toward the LGBT community, but have found support from their friends and Muncie Outreach,” McMichael said.
Four in 10 LGBT youth say the community in which they live in is not accepting of LGBT people, according to Human Rights Campaign.
“The stories through the event ranged from ... extremely supportive to no support from family at all,” McMichael said. “For some people, it was the first time they told their coming out stories to anyone other than close friends.”
National Coming Out Day is not a day that pressures people to come out, McMichael said. It is a day that highlights the difficulties that people in the LGBT community face when they come out. The day also is a way to provide equality and support to those people to show that it’s a good thing to be open and come out.
“By participating in this, we want people to realize that we all go through similar things and to understand that there are people here for your support,” McMichael said. “Coming out is not a bad thing, and you are never alone.”
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