Coming Out Day Raises Awareness

With 20,000 people on campus, it's not unheard of to see one or two people wearing the same shirt on a given day. But it's not often that there are hundreds of people wearing the same shirt in different colors. "Homophobia is a Socially-Transmitted Disease," read brightly colored shirts around UConn Thursday.

The shirts were a part of National Coming Out Day, a project of the Human Rights Campaign, which works for equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people, according to their Web site.

The Rainbow Center gives out a T-shirt each year for students to wear to bring awareness to the cause. Rainbow Center director Fleurette King was amazed how many shirts were gone by 4 p.m., saying she had "noticed the piles diminish quickly," though she didn't want to estimate the number that had been given out. The shirts came in many colors, including red, pink, green and black, and all said the same thing: "Homophobia is a Socially-Transmitted Disease."

King described the shirts as a great way for students to show support for GLBT people and help the Rainbow Center and affiliates feel welcome on campus. The shirts also bring students into the Rainbow Center, which "creates a positive energy for the Rainbow Center and an opportunity for unfamiliar students to see a welcoming space," she said.

King added that, though in the past the Rainbow Center staff has come up with the T-shirt slogan themselves, this year the center held a contest for students to create the shirts' slogan. Slogans from the recent years include "Erase the Hate" and "F@%# Tolerance, I Want Equality."

In addition to the T-shirts, students manned a table on Union Street with free goodies and information for students about National Coming Out Day.

"We're trying to get more exposure and awareness in the UConn community," said Patrick Delvecchio, a 5th-semester psychology major who was handing out information at the table. Students who came to the table were greeted with were rainbow cookies, "Ally" pins, Human Rights Campaign stickers and rubber rainbow bracelets. Also available at the table were free brochures about coming out, GLBT equality, being an ally and living openly, all of which encouraged people to "talk about it."

The "Straight Guide To GLBT Americans" brochure asks that allies "find the courage to accept the challenge of honesty. That means being honest with yourself - acknowledging your feelings and coming to terms with them [and] being honest with this person [who has come out] - asking questions you need to ask, learning the facts and making an effort to understand the realities of being a GLBT individual so that you can be truly informed and supportive."

Students also played a trivia game at the table in order to become more informed.

"I learned that there are more than 100 million gay and lesbian veterans in the U.S.," said Isaac Cruz, a 7th-semester biological sciences major.

Matt Blinstrubas, a 9th-semester English and social justice major, said that the table was very successful and that they had two people who said that they just came out.

Blinstrubas added that UConn had been listed as one of the Top 100 queer-friendly campuses in the U.S. and that the True Colors Conference, the largest GLBT youth issues conference, is coming to UConn in March.

According to the Human Rights Campaign's Web site, this is a milestone year for National Coming Out Day, as it is also the 20th anniversary of the Gay and Lesbian march on Washington in 1987 and the presentation of the AIDS quilt on the National Mall.