October is the national ‘Gay Coming Out Month’ for the LGBTQIA+ community in the United States of America. On October 11th, 2016, America will celebrate the 28th annual National Coming Out Day. The Human Rights Campaign was quoted saying, “Coming out - whether it is as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or allied - STILL MATTERS. When people know someone who is LGBTQ, they are far more likely to support equality under the law. Beyond that, our stories can be powerful to each other”.
The month of October is a time to celebrate the Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgenderd, Transsexuals, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, and Allies. However, the celebration... wasn’t always a celebration. This month is also a time to reflect on the history of the LGBTQIA+ community all over the United States and world.
Oct. 14th, 1979, hundreds of thousands of people flooded Washington, D.C., to protest the assassination on the openly gay California politician, Harvey Milk. The thousands of people marched to fight against the laws that banned homosexuals and discrimination. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), GLAAD (formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and the National Education Association endorsed and promoted the idea of October becoming the LGBTQIA+ History Month. In 1979, they had five demands; pass a Gay rights bill, banning discrimination based on orientation in the workplace, repeal all of the anti-LGBTQIA+ laws, stop the discrimination in the lesbian mother and gay father child custody court cases, and to protect the LGBTQIA+ youth from discrimination laws in education and other social environment areas.
An American journalist, Allen Young, became invested in the movement and helped write the Welcome Program. His closing paragraph is seen as one of the most moving and influential paragraphs from the whole program. He wrote, "Today in the capital of America, we are all here, the almost liberated and the slightly repressed; the butch, the femme and everything in-between; the androgynous; the monogamous and the promiscuous; the masturbators and the fellators and the tribadists; men in dresses and women in neckties; those who bite and those who cuddle; celebates[sic] and pederasts; diesel dykes and nelly queens; amazons and size queens, Yellow, Black, Brown, White, and Red; the shorthaired and the long, the fat and the thin; the nude and the prude; the beauties and the beasts; the studs and the duds; the communes, the couples, and the singles; pubescents and the octogenarians. Yes, we are all here! We are everywhere! Welcome to the March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights!"
Which at the time, being “out of the closet” was looked upon negatively and considered taboo. Young’s statement opened the eyes of people who saw the movement as just Lesbian and Gay people congregating, to realize that it was much more than just a march, it was a progressive movement. During the three days, there were workshops held, artistic events, groups gathered for strategy planning on confronting the American politicians and government, and met with over one hundred House members and fifty Senators.
The fight for Gay Rights has come so far over the years. According to some, the movement really took off in the 1980s due to the AIDs epidemic and misunderstanding of the disease. AIDs used to be called the “Gay Disease” or by medical professionals as ‘GRID’ (Gay Related Immune Deficiency), it was also seen by religious people as, “God’s way of killing off the homosexuals”.
However, we now know that anyone can get AIDs and can contract it in many different ways. In the 1990s, many college students across the United States became involved with pushing for the rights for the LGBTQIA+ community. These students protested, held “Days of Silence”, and formed numerous LGBTQIA+ organizations on and off campus. In 1993, a law was passed for the military, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, which allowed lesbian and gay citizens to enlist into the military, but if it was known or found out that they were gay, they were dishonorably discharged. This law was later repealed in 2010.
In June 2015, which is also known as the ‘Gay Pride Month’, the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, the United States Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4, that the state-level laws that exclude same-sex marriage are 100% unconstitutional. This made the United States the 17th country to legalize same-sex marriage. This case was a huge step for the LGBTQIA+ movement (and was just in time for the Pride Parades all over the United States, that followed the ruling a few days later).
The Gay Pride month of June was placed into effect after the Stonewall Riots that occurred in Manhattan, New York City in 1969. Although very violent, these riots were in protest to the New York Police Department raid (and arrests) of the Stonewall Inn, for “homosexual acts”. This inn was run by the Mafia and was one of the (many) establishments that served the LGBTQIA+ community. Although these places were opened by the Mafia for insincere reasons, they were a place that people were allowed to feel and be themselves. Unfortunately, during this time, police raids on homosexual bars were routine.
A few months after the Stonewall Riots, people banded together and formed Gay Activist Organizations and put a plan into action. On June 28, 1970, the first Gay Pride marches took place in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. These parades followed every year, showing the community and the rest of the world, that being Gay and Proud is something that shouldn’t be shunned. The tradition of a Gay Pride parade are still held annually.
Some ways you can celebrate National Coming Out Day is to come out as an ally or as LGBTQIA+ member. Another way is to support people who are coming out, have already come out, share experiences with one another, and/or to volunteer somewhere that serves others.