The Office of LGBTQ Life hosted their first-ever National Coming Out Party on Oct. 9 in Charles Commons to celebrate LGBTQA members of the Hopkins community.
National Coming Out Day is a globally celebrated event and usually occurs annually on Oct. 11.
“National Coming Out Day has been celebrated every year for [26 years] out of a desire to honor folks who are LGBTQA [and] are living out proud lives,” Demere G. Woolway, director of LGBTQ Life and the organizer of the event, said.
Student Intern Christianne Marguerite talked about how this event related to Hopkins.
“This event is celebrating the OUTlist and the allies. The OUTlist is a list of Johns Hopkins-affiliated students, staff [and] faculty members who are out and who wish to be publicly visible on the online list in order to be there as a support system for people who are interested in networking and connecting with the people on the OUTlist, as well as the list of allies who have been through the safe zone training and are safe spaces or people to go to and talk to about LGBTQ and allied issues,” Marguerite said.
According to the Hopkins OUTlist website, the list was launched on the National Coming Out Day of 2011.
At the event, there was a large table with various pamphlets for coming out and guides for the members of the LGBTQ community.
One pamphlet, “Coming Out as a Supporter: A Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Americans,” offered many tips and facts for people with friends and family who have come out. This pamphlet, along with almost all of the pamphlets available, gave additional resources such as national LGBT organizations, religious organizations and hotlines.
The same table offered free rainbow pens and rainbow pins. There were also separate tables with rainbow scratch paper in the shapes of human silhouettes. The people who came to the event created their own individual person out of the rainbow scratch paper. These rainbow cut-outs and the poster that everyone signed will be at the opening ceremony of the LGBTQA’s office at the end of October.
“This event celebrates [the allies of LGBTQ] by giving a small gift of the pin, and this event is basically celebrating community in general and the importance of being visible and the importance of National Coming Out Day,” Marguerite said.
There was also a slide presentation that quoted anonymous members of the LGBT community who shared their coming out stories.
“I ‘came out’ upon entering a serious relationship with an individual of my own gender. I do not define my personality by sexuality. As such, I never felt the need to make the process a big deal. I do not hide it, but I do not advertise it,” one slide read.
The event was largely a social gathering for people to create a stronger community of LGBTQA members.
According to the “LGBTQ Life Report: 2013-2014,” LGBTQ Life hopes to create a speakers bureau program, increase awareness in classrooms and focus on LGBT students of color and transgender students in the future.
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