Today is October 11, 2014. It's National Coming Out Day. Happy day to everyone. There's been quite a lot of good advancement in the cause of equality this past week, and one of the most important things that has helped us get here is that we came out. We dared to tell people that we exist. As we refused to hide ourselves, people have gotten to know us. They see how we're just folk who want to live our lives and try to find some measure of happiness. Fewer people are scared of us. Fewer people hate us. And it took our having courage to identify ourselves.
I've actually seen some ask if coming out is still necessary. Duh, of course it is. One, the cause of equality is not over. Two, even if full legal equality had been achieved, we would still have to come out, if for nothing else than we're a less-obvious minority. That it can be possible that we can hide this aspect about ourselves will always necessitate that we come out in some form or another. In our society, being straight is the default, so if we're not straight, we dispel that assumption by coming out. Now, hopefully in the future coming out will be a far less scary, stressful process, but we'll still have to come out. But also, coming out is not a one-time event. Every time you meet someone new, we face that question again: do I tell them or not? The ultimate challenge is allowing ourselves to live as open around others, in public, around strangers, as we would if we were around people whom we know won't reject us or attack us. So, we constantly evaluate new people, and thus we come out again and again.
Today, we celebrate coming out. We celebrate being who we are and being unashamed of it. We celebrate courage and strength and openness.
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