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Happy Coming Out Day!

Jill

It’s National Coming Out Day.

“Every single time we talk about our lives as GLBT Americans, we are another step closer to equality,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “Each word helps build bridges that change hearts and minds — and eventually our laws.”

And today is for everyone:

“We will only achieve equality by growing the number of people who stand with us,” said Shields. “Every time a straight person speaks out against an anti-gay joke, or joins a gay-straight alliance, they are having a coming out experience. We want to honor that, and make sure it happens more often.”

We all have a responsiblity to take a stand against homophobia. Share your story, and read others.

16 thoughts on Happy Coming Out Day!

  1. I’m going to post this here, as I am too chicken-shit to do it in real life. To My Co-workers (and the only people who DON’T know this already) : Even though I have a long-term boyfriend and I will be marrying him soon, I am bisexual, and have had numerous relationships with various women. No, it’s not a fase, it’s a preference. Well, more like I don’t prefer one sex to the other, I just happened to fall deeply in love with a man.

    ok. Done.

    Thanks.

  2. I’ve already come out to a few very close friends, so this is more like my online personality coming out: I am a bisexual man. I do prefer women over men, but there are a not-insignificant number of men that I am attracted to, as well, though I’ve yet to act on those feelings and I’m not sure how likely I am to act on them.

    That is all.

  3. I’m not gay, but I … well … I … I think I’m comfortable enough to say that … I … that … well … Lorenzo Lamas is a very attractive man.

    There I said it.

    I’m free!

  6. Homophobia? Why would I fear the gays? They’re, like, all weak and sissy-girlish.

    Except for the chicks. Them I fear.

    Oh. Okay. Point taken.

  7. I’m not gay, but I … well … I … I think I’m comfortable enough to say that … I … that … well … Lorenzo Lamas is a very attractive man.

    I’m with Robert. Anyone who finds Lorenzo Lamas attractive is a deviant not fit for teaching small children.

    That having been said, David Hasselhoff is dreeeeeamy.

  11. You know, I’m not a terribly big fan of the whole “coming out” thing. I got words for this sentiment from Judith Butler. Paraphrased: So we’ve come out of the closet; what new space are we confined to?

    Well, for me, it’s the world at large. It’s still not safe to be queer in this country or abroad, and there is no good reason for it. That said, I’m proud to have “come out” and thrown a bit of cognitive dissonance into my environment.

    And, fwiw, this is the sexiest man alive. He’d never go back to the ladies…

  12. I keep my blogging strictly business and bitching, you know? For like a year and a half, I’ve never stated one way or another any sort of sexual preference or predisposition or anything on my site… It just is simply not relevant to the things I post there, so I never brought it up. That is, until this past week, when an ex-boyfriend stopped by and basically outed me inadvertently. Oops. That’s what you get for having an open comment thread, I guess.

    PS — OMFG Josh, I trust you’ve seen the trailers for Brokeback Mountain. I’m gettin’ the vapors just thinking about it!

  13. Hmm…The picture link isn’t working (sad day), so I’ll just have to use my imagination…or watch October Sky again.

    Speaking of Gyllenhaal, I need to see Donnie Darko…

  14. Donnie Darko is a great film, though I think Maggie is the better acting Gyllenhaal.

    Josh- It’s plenty safe to be a queer in this country, and getting better every year. Gay bashings get a lot of press, and hate crimes stats often increase, but I think that’s just a growing awareness of the issue. I’m a lot more concerned about getting hurt or killed in a car than I am for getting gay bashed. Things are a world different from when I came out in 1993.

    The more the merrier

  15. randomliberal/Robert — Yes, you do need to see Donnie Darko. The Director’s Cut is easier to follow; some say it destroys the “what the fuck” ambience of the original. You be the judge.

    other Ryan — It doesn’t matter that Maggie is a better actor. Jake is hottt 😉

    And as for being ‘safe’ to be queer, yes, it’s definitely safer than being queer in some other places (as seen vividly in photographs recently). It’s definitely safer than being queer today than being queer in the past. But I’m not sure Josh is talking about the direct physical abuse kind of “safety”…

    I would add that while it’s physically not terribly dangerous in a lot of places to be openly gay (even here in Podunk, IN, I would say it’s not particularly risky for one’s health) — but there are lots of other incidental risks associated with being out that are hard to calculate.

    For starters, while there’s been a reasonably effective movement to push overt racism and sexism out of the limelight and into the dark recesses of public psyche*, homophobia and queer-hatin’ is still a reasonably acceptable thing. There are lots of places where it’s still perfectly OK to lose your apartment lease, your job, and even your child explicitly because you’re queer. I have a friend who was kicked out of an apartment here in Podunk specifically because he is gay — and this, despite the fact we have a nondiscrimination ordinance which prohibits that sort of thing.

    I refuse to wallow in that sort of self-pity, so I totally agree with you. The more the merrier! We’ll have a good goddamn time whether the idiots want us to or not. And it will be good. But I still don’t think it’s time to talk about being queer today like it’s picking daisies** or something 🙂

    — ————–

    * – I’m not saying sexism and racism aren’t still a force in our society. Just wanted to cut that argument off before it got started. Simply saying it’s more accpetable to be outwardly biased against those goddamn faggots today.

    ** – I don’t even know what this means. But it sounds fun and relaxing, doesn’t it?

  16. PS — OMFG Josh, I trust you’ve seen the trailers for Brokeback Mountain. I’m gettin’ the vapors just thinking about it!

    Yup. It’s like they made a movie from a list of, “Things Piny Might Like.”

    I also recently heard about this: a movie about Rupert Everett as a gay pinko British prep school boy who falls in love with Cary Elwes.

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