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Students come out of closet
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by Pedro Oliveira Jr.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Several of University of Wisconsin students asked Library Mall passers-by to come out of the closet, in celebration of National Coming Out Day Thursday.
The event, organized by the UW Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Campus Center, was part of a weeklong celebration to celebrate and raise awareness for LGBT-related issues on campus.
"Coming out isn't something you do just once," said Sex Out Loud adviser Daña Alder, who "came out" to support the event. "If you're a gay man or a lesbian, every day you decide if you're going to come out to people or not."
Alder said the dilemma happens when people who identify as LGBT enter the doctor's office, and when they go to class. In any daily interaction, everyone has the choice to be open or not about their gender and sexual identity, she also said.
According to Alder, studies have shown that people who know a member of the LGBT community are generally more open to civil rights.
"If you are the cousin of somebody and you found out she was a lesbian, you'd say ‘Oh, all that stuff I heard about lesbians can't be right because I know Mary, and she's not like that,'" Alder said.
UW sophomore Chanel Matsumi Govreau said though UW has a fair amount of pro-LGBT activism, the campus still has a long way to go before eliminating oppression of the LGBT community.
"One of the first few weeks I came to school, I'm walking to class in Library Mall, and there's a raving fanatic telling me that all homos are going to hell," Matsumi Govreau said. "That was my welcome Wisconsin week — that's what I encountered, and I really wanted to go screaming back home."
Matsumi Govreau said there are places, like the LGBT Campus Center, that offer a safe space, but most places are still closed-minded.
"It's uncomfortable to be in a classroom situation and be openly gay, and there's still a lot of oppression here," Matsumi Govreau said.
UW senior Joe Erbentraut, LGBT Campus Center event coordinator, however, said Madison does have its advantages, especially for those coming from small Midwestern cities.
"I came from a much smaller town where there are very few out gay and lesbian people, so coming to Madison was sort of this door opening," Erbentraut said. "I would see things like this [event] and know that there are people like me that I could talk to and get to know and not feel too alone."
Alder said Madison is not completely free of homophobia, and there is a "lot to be done at UW."
"The reason this kind of a visibility is important is to remind us of that, and to remind us that we kind of owe it to the future generations to be as out as we can, because that's ultimately what's going to make their lives easier," Alder said.
Coming Out Week will feature the "Come Out in Color" Ten Percent Society dance Friday at the Memorial Union Great Hall and a movie followed by a discussion Saturday.
Anonymous (October 12, 2007 @ 10:21am):
Is the LGBT community starved for attention? Looks more like just another publicity stunt. We don't care if you're gay. In fact, we'd rather not even hear about it. Keep it to yourself.
Anonymous (October 12, 2007 @ 4:52pm):
Frankly, if you don't care if some people are gay or transgender and don't want to hear about it, I wonder how you would react if I said, as a trans student who knows many gay individuals, that I didn't want to hear about the fact that you were heterosexual.
Respect goes both ways, asshole.
Anonymous (October 13, 2007 @ 11:35pm):
How about this, 10:21? Those of us who are gay will stop being gay in public when heterosexuals stop being straight in public? The assertion that gay people should keep it to themselves completely misses the fact that everyday, we live in a society where gay people have to deal with heteronormality and situations where we are, explicitly or implicitly, excluded from different aspects of our culture. Whether it is a dating website ad only showing heterosexual love or people staring at me as i walk down the street holding my boyfriend's hand, the heterosexual majority is constantly "forcing their sexuality down our throats," and to say anything different is socially ignorant.
Anonymous (October 14, 2007 @ 3:23am):
11:35pm, we are not forcing heterosexuality down your throats. You are forcing homosexuality down ours. [GAG!] Be whatever you want, but spare us the militant extremism you practiced back in the 90's!
Anonymous (October 14, 2007 @ 3:54am):
Homosexuality is a sin, plain and simple. You are condemning yourself to Hell for all eternity. Repent!
--scoobysnack
Anonymous (October 14, 2007 @ 12:07pm):
"11:35pm, we are not forcing heterosexuality down your throats. You are forcing homosexuality down ours. [GAG!] Be whatever you want, but spare us the militant extremism you practiced back in the 90's!"
Right, because homosexuals control the government, the economy, and society, and are torturing you into becoming gay.
Anonymous (October 14, 2007 @ 3:24pm):
3:23 - actually, you kind of are forcing heterosexuality down their throats (I say 'their' because while I'm trans, I'm also asexual, so neither homosexuality, heterosexuality, or bisexuality apply). Most people are assumed to be heterosexual until more information is received. They're hardly being negative about heterosexuals, and those who are are few and far between and typically not thought well of by the LGBT community, because the LGBT community endures so much prejudice by itself and knows prejudice is a bad thing.
And 3:54 - go back to the hole you came from. I'm not going to even try to speak reason to your Christian extremism because you are merely doing what an outdated doctrine tells you to do and not actually questioning it.
Anonymous (October 14, 2007 @ 9:56pm):
"Judge not, that ye be not judged."
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
"Let brotherly love continue"
How about you practice what your good book tells you instead of shouting "faggot" at people you don't know.
Anonymous (October 14, 2007 @ 11:54pm):
3:23, if you don't think heterosexuality is forced down everyone's throats then you're just not looking. when you're out and about over the next few days, take note of all the times you see something portrayed heteronormatively. i can think of multiple situations off the top of my head: the aformentioned hetero ads, sitting in my spanish class being asked if i have a girlfriend (but not a boyfriend), the guy who takes offense (rather than feeling complimented) to me praising how he looks (as though it's wrong for me to feel that way)....the list goes on and on. heterosexuality IS forced upon everyone, regardless of their actual orientation.
Anonymous (October 14, 2007 @ 11:56pm):
3:54, you really have a sound, well put together argument. i'm surprised you haven't won some kind of award for that groundbreaking, backwards ass thinking.
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