Umbrellas held overhead, about 35 University students, faculty and staff members stood outside the Frist Campus Center listening to each other's experiences as gays, lesbians, bisexuals and straight allies in celebration of National Coming Out Day on Friday.
The rally was organized by the Pride Alliance — a campus organization created to provide a comfortable and safe environment for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning members of the University community.
Part of LGBT Awareness Week, the rally has taken place at the University since the late 1980s, said Debbie Bazarsky, LGBT student services coordinator.
A majority of the rally's participants were wearing blue jeans as part of Gay Jeans Day, which also took place Friday.
Gay Jeans Day stems from the idea that being gay should be as comfortable as wearing a favorite pair of jeans, LGBT leaders said. Posters were put up all over campus to inform the community, said Betsy Smith '03, co-president of the Pride Alliance.
"This way, people have to make a conscious decision about wearing jeans [to demonstrate their support for the LGBT community]," Smith said.
National Coming Out Day is sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest national lesbian and gay political organization, according to its website. It is celebrated every Oct. 11 to commemorate the anniversary of the 1987 march on Washington, D.C., protesting gay and lesbian inequality.
"It's a day to celebrate coming out, to recognize coming out," Bazarsky said.
National Coming Out Day is held at the University to demonstrate to the community that there is a core of supportive people who can help still-closeted gays and lesbians, said Sue Dyer '03, co-president of the Pride Alliance.
"Coming out is not something you do just once," Bazarsky said. "You have to come out over and over.
"Coming out is a lifetime process," she said.
At the rally, gays, lesbians, bisexuals and straight allies all spoke about their experiences and expressed optimism for the future of the LGBT community on campus. Some were staff members who offered themselves as role models to gay and lesbian students.
"This is very relevant because there is still homophobia on campus," Virgilio Sklar '03 said.
Dean of Religious Life Thomas Breidenthal participated in the rally, saying his role on campus is to "support inclusion, safety and respect for all people."
Thema Bryant-Davis, SHARE coordinator, wrote a poem especially for the occasion. Titled "Welcome Home," the poem expressed hope that the LGBT community would be able to live in an environment free of "hate," "lies" and "stereotype and mythology," and live instead in a world that is "sacred" and "righteous."
Community leaders came forth to make clear that sexual orientation would not stand in the way of a religious affiliation. The Chaplains of the United Campus Ministry and the Office of Religious Life committed themselves in a statement "to ongoing dialogue with brothers and sisters regardless of orientation."
Sklar agreed, saying, "This is an academic setting, so let's have discourse, not violence."
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