Coming Up, Coming Out
CMU's annual Coming Out Week returns
According to the Williams Institute, roughly 3.8 percent of the American population identifies as a member of the LGBT community in 2011.
Although 3.8 is a small number, it is roughly around nine million adults. That’s nine million individuals with stories and experiences to share during National Coming Out Week.
Shannon Jolliff-Dettore, director of LGBTQ services, has overseen the last six Coming Out Weeks. She expects a high turnout from students, faculty and community members.
This year will introduce new events Trans 101 and Sex, Genderf*cked.
“Over the years, we’ve really tried to provide events to students that need it," Jolliff-Dettore said.
National Coming Out Week kicks off Monday with Drag Queen Bingo in the UC from 8 to 10 p.m. All events hosted through Coming Out Week will be free of charge.
Coming Out Week leads up to the nationally recognized Coming Out Day, Oct. 11, which started in 1988. The day originally paid homage to the 1987 Second National March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian rights, which opened the door for discussions about the AIDS crisis of the 80’s and the lack of care for LGBTQ individuals from the Reagan Administration.
The march also touched on the need for inclusion and visibility of transgender and bisexual individuals in the LGBTQ movement, as well as the visibility of LGBTQ individuals of color.
Now the events serve as a means of education for both the LGBTQ community and its allies, as well as advocate for non-heterosexuals to be open about their gender and sexual identities without fear.
“We want to provide a space for queer students to celebrate their identities and be proud of who they are, and then we want to have a space for education campus wide,” Jolliff-Dettore said. “We want to provide spaces where students, faculty and staff can learn and engage in dialogue they usually don’t on a daily basis.”
Leading up to National Coming Out Day, CMU puts on events that are used to celebrate LGBTQ individuals and their stories. Events hosted in the University Center, Kaya Coffee House, Plachta Auditorium and the Center for Inclusion and Diversity serve to provide a medium for LGBT students to tell their stories, and educate allies.
“It’s important that we have a mixture of the fun events as well as the educational,” Jolliff-Dettore said.
Trans 101, hosted by the campus transgender advocate group Transcend, hopes to provide cisgender individuals with “training about being in solidarity with the trans community.”
Kai Niezgoda, president of Transcend, said Coming Out Week is a great way to provide people who have little experience with LGBTQ individuals a chance to learn and become a positive ally.
“I think that because of our dominant culture messages of LGBTQ people get warped into misconceptions and misunderstandings,” Niezgoda said. “We are planning on presenting trans related information: general terms to know, tips for talking about trans individuals respectively, and talking to trans individuals respectably, and just clearing up misinformation.”
Another binary breaking event, Sex, Genderf*cked, will be put on Wednesday from 8 to 9 p.m. at the Center for Inclusion and Diversity.
Noelle Gottnett, an intern for the LGBTQ Offices who is directing the event, said the presentation will be gender inclusive and sex positive. It will tackle misconceptions about sex, the difference between sex and gender, and safer sex and STI preventions.
“It’s important because of lot of people don’t receive good sex education, especially where consent and queer sex is concerned," Gottnett said.
