[media-credit name=’KATE BRENNER/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]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.