GLBTSSS celebrates coming out

Twenty years later, Doug Bauder remembers the 1987 Gay and Lesbian March on Washington, D.C. \n“This day was a pivotal moment in the GLBT movement, and over the years, Oct. 11 has become the one day of the year set aside to emphasize the importance of being open,” said Bauder, coordinator of IU’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Student Support Services.\nNational Coming Out Day is held every year on Oct. 11. This year, GLBTSSS is dedicating the entire day to raising awareness not only within the GLBT community, but in the non-GLBT community as well.\nFrom 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, GLBTSSS will be hosting an open house at its office on Seventh Street, said GLBTSSS Program Coordinator Kyle DeWitt. There will be drinks and refreshments and a video camera set up so that people coming in can tell their coming out or ally stories for a video project, DeWitt said.\nNational Coming Out Day is a day for members of the GLBT community to honor themselves.\n“National Day of Silence, our spring semester program, is to raise awareness in the non-GLBT community,” DeWitt said. “National Coming Out Day is the day for us to celebrate our community.” \nComing out is still a difficult and private decision to make, said Bauder, who has been the GLBT coordinator for 12 years.\n“But this day is about taking the courage to step up and say ‘This is who I am,’ and we are highlighting that decision on this particular day of the year,” Bauder said.\nBeginning at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Willkie Auditorium, the student organization OUT will be holding its annual resource fair, which will include student and community GLBT and ally groups, DeWitt said. \nThe entertainment will begin at 7 p.m. and will feature Bloomington area drag king Xavier Brooks and Miss \nGay IU 2007.\nDeWitt stressed the personal importance of National Coming Out Day. \n“I came out in high school, and when I did, it felt like it wasn’t something to be celebrated, but to be afraid of,” DeWitt said. “There are still many, many people here on campus who are closeted, and I don’t want them to feel like I felt. Being gay is not something to not celebrate.” \nThis year’s slogan is “Homophobia – that’s so gay!” Bauder said. \n“When I told it to my partner this morning, he was confused and said that (the phrase) didn’t make sense,” Bauder said. “And I told him, exactly. Homophobia doesn’t make sense.”