For lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, coming out signifies much more than personal liberation, author S. Bear Bergman said Wednesday.
It also marks ‘the path to liberation for everyone.’
‘I don’t think we give enough credit to what an important act it is just to come out,’ Bergman told an audience of more than 100 in Penn State’s HUB-Robeson Center.
A keynote speaker at the university National Coming Out Week Rally, Bergman turned to research to make the case. Studies show that people who know four or more gay individuals are three times more likely to support equal-marriage rights than those who know three or fewer gay individuals, Bergman said.
‘It is a difference that you are making’ when you come out, said Bergman, also a transgender poet and playwright. ‘You are being, in the words of Mohandas Gandhi, the change you want to see in the world.’
The crowd, one of several Penn State events to mark National Coming Out Week, cheered with its approval. (To open a photo gallery from the event, click on the large image above. A related video provided via Onward State is linked below.)
About a dozen people — most of them students — spoke at the midday rally, sponsored by the LGBTQA Student Alliance at the university.
Their messages were hopeful, encouraging participants and onlookers to celebrate identity, unite in friendship and fight back homophobia.
‘We always like to get visibility for the LGBTQA community,’ said Alyssia Motah, the alliance president.
Not everyone knows about the LGBTQA-focused resources available at the university, but awareness events — like the rally — help get the word out, Motah said.
It’s OK ‘if you are closeted,’ she said. But alliance organizers want students to know ‘people are here for you’ if they choose to come out, Motah added.
Bergman, based in Toronto, said he found ‘an enormous amount’ of student involvement at the LGBTA Student Resource Center at Penn State. He said that involvement — and students’ enthusiasm — distinguishes the university, which has been rated among the most LGBT-friendly universities in the country.
Additional National Coming Out Week events at Penn State will include a drag show at 10 p.m. Friday in Thomas Building. Another speaker event is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday in the HUB’s Heritage Hall.
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