Today we had two events, one hosted by the One Project and another by the Pride Alliance.
Today's lunch discussion about National Coming Out today brought out a group of students who opened up and shared their varying stories about coming out. What seemed surprising is that a lot of them did not have "bad" experiences coming out and that may mean an overall change in the atmosphere surrounding gay stigmas. I know it doesn't mean there is a massive change (or else we wouldn't need vigils anymore), but maybe small changes here and there.
Tonight's vigil drew out about 150 students, faculty and staff and it was a great showing to celebrate the lives and mourn the deaths of the 7 (and presumably many other) deaths caused because of harassment, bullying, discrimination, poor language, etc. that happened in the month of September and probably happens daily across the country. It is good that our media has picked up on these few, but no doubt there are many more out there. The vigil was planned by The Pride Alliance and featured students, staff and faculty reading poetry that expressed both love and anger and also speeches urging us all to love each other and see the beauty in one another. There was also an opportunity to the staff on campus who interact with the LGBT community to come up and introduce themselves to the students there so that the students knew who they could turn to. Overall, it was a great event!!!! Hopefully we won't need to do another one anytime soon or ever again.
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