In recognition and celebration of National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11, the LGBT Resource Center and the student organization Global held the first ever Coming Out Monologues, where students shared their coming out stories.
Spectators gathered in the Student Center Theater Thursday to hear student speakers’ personal tales. Each speaker had up to 10 minutes to present a personal story to the audience about their experiences of coming out to family and friends and their daily struggle with discrimination.
Coming out for LGBT Resource Center Graduate Assistant and transgender male Liam Stone was quite a task.
“Telling what I went through was difficult,” Stone said. “It took me three or four times attacking the topic.”
The Coming Out Monologues are modeled after the Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler and started by students at the University of California, Riverside in 2007. Since that time, the Coming Out Monologues have been adopted by many universities.
Human resource and anthropology senior Ryan Foley believes that UH still has room to grow in respect to LGBT tolerance.
“People will use slurs,” Foley said. “I’ve heard the word ‘fa***t’. I’ve heard the word ‘d**e,’ — all the language you shouldn’t be using out in public. (But) I’ve heard it multiple times all around campus.”
The Coming Out Monologues are meant to promote support and solidarity for everyone in the LGBT community, especially those who are still struggling to find the courage to come out.
“We’re human beings,” Stone said. “We have our struggles, and our struggles are particular to our queerness (but) we have feelings.”
According to the Human Rights Campaign, Oct. 11 is the 27th anniversary of the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights and is recognized as National Coming Out Day. Their website has an extensive list of resources for anyone struggling with the decision of whether to come out or not. Visit http://www.hrc.org/resources/category/coming-out for an array of references.