NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY AND MATTHEW SHEPARD
By Jerome Cleary
Two important dates came to pass recently: Tuesday, Oct. 11, National Coming Out Day and Wednesday, Oct. 12, was the seventh year anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death from gay bashing. In West Hollywood, these two dates seem to pass without any real notice or concern.
While the city had already made the month of October, Women's Breast Cancer and Disabilities month, these two other dates were not really acknowledged or recognized.
When I spoke to several people about National Coming Out Day being last week Oct. 11 and that I noticed that nothing was really done in West Hollywood, some of the responses were: well that means there is progress and oh do we need to do that anymore?
I wonder when people make comments like that, doe it really mean progress when something important is overlooked or not given acknowledgement?
Only two years ago, West Hollywood had a candlelight vigil at the Matthew Shepard memorial at Santa Monica Boulevard and Crescent Heights. But this year nothing was being done to commemorate that day.
Several people told me that since that had been originally former City Councilmember Steve Martin's idea, that the present city council did not want to continue it. Now that Steve Martin is not in office anymore, does this mean that Matthew Shepard's former candlelight vigil has now become politicized? Does this mean our city does not want to re-visit, support or continue this idea based on general good riddance to Steve Martin?
Every day lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders are still discriminated against, so I still believe National Coming Out Day should be respectively honored. I know that other cities and states were celebrating and recognizing National Coming Out Day last week. Some cities are celebrating it the whole week and month.
To really comprehend the magnitude of National Coming Out Day and know it's full history of how it came about, here it is: the first National Coming Out Day was held on Oct. 11,1988. This date was chosen for the annual event to commemorate the 1987-March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights.
It also marked the first anniversary of the visit of the AIDS Memorial Quilt to Washington, D.C. Over 500,000 people participated in the March and this was the second such demonstration in our nation's capital and the first display of the NAMES Project Quilt, remembering those who have died from AIDS. Since the march was so successful, many organizations were founded. Some of these were the National Latino/a Gay & Lesbian Organization (LLEGÓ) and AT&T's GLBT employee group, LEAGUE.
Four months after this historic event, over 100 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists met outside of Washington, D.C. These activists focused their efforts on the idea of a national day to celebrate and recognize coming out.
From this idea of a national day, they chose the anniversary of that second march on Washington. The creators and pioneers of this idea were Rob Eichberg, a founder of the personal growth workshop, The Experience, and Jean O'Leary, then head of National Gay Rights Advocates. National Coming Out Day was about to be launched. O'Leary expanded the West Hollywood office of NGRA to give National Coming Out Day its first headquarters. Activist Sean Strub got Keith Haring to donate his now-famous image of a person dancing out of a closet.
The first National Coming Out Day was celebrated with events in 18 states, and some of the national media attention included: CNN, USA Today, National Public Radio and Oprah.
Coming Out and staying out is a lifetime process so National Coming Out Day is not really just for one day and date. It can be celebrated, explored and recognized this year during the whole month of October and the rest of our lives. So with that being said, there's still time for us to recognize and support this important historic event.
Jerome Cleary is an actor, writer and comic at The World Famous Comedy Store-www.freecomedytickets.com and can be reached at: jeromeclearytalk@aol.com
Two important dates came to pass recently: Tuesday, Oct. 11, National Coming Out Day and Wednesday, Oct. 12, was the seventh year anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death from gay bashing. In West Hollywood, these two dates seem to pass without any real notice or concern.
While the city had already made the month of October, Women's Breast Cancer and Disabilities month, these two other dates were not really acknowledged or recognized.
When I spoke to several people about National Coming Out Day being last week Oct. 11 and that I noticed that nothing was really done in West Hollywood, some of the responses were: well that means there is progress and oh do we need to do that anymore?
I wonder when people make comments like that, doe it really mean progress when something important is overlooked or not given acknowledgement?
Only two years ago, West Hollywood had a candlelight vigil at the Matthew Shepard memorial at Santa Monica Boulevard and Crescent Heights. But this year nothing was being done to commemorate that day.
Several people told me that since that had been originally former City Councilmember Steve Martin's idea, that the present city council did not want to continue it. Now that Steve Martin is not in office anymore, does this mean that Matthew Shepard's former candlelight vigil has now become politicized? Does this mean our city does not want to re-visit, support or continue this idea based on general good riddance to Steve Martin?
Every day lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders are still discriminated against, so I still believe National Coming Out Day should be respectively honored. I know that other cities and states were celebrating and recognizing National Coming Out Day last week. Some cities are celebrating it the whole week and month.
To really comprehend the magnitude of National Coming Out Day and know it's full history of how it came about, here it is: the first National Coming Out Day was held on Oct. 11,1988. This date was chosen for the annual event to commemorate the 1987-March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights.
It also marked the first anniversary of the visit of the AIDS Memorial Quilt to Washington, D.C. Over 500,000 people participated in the March and this was the second such demonstration in our nation's capital and the first display of the NAMES Project Quilt, remembering those who have died from AIDS. Since the march was so successful, many organizations were founded. Some of these were the National Latino/a Gay & Lesbian Organization (LLEGÓ) and AT&T's GLBT employee group, LEAGUE.
Four months after this historic event, over 100 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists met outside of Washington, D.C. These activists focused their efforts on the idea of a national day to celebrate and recognize coming out.
From this idea of a national day, they chose the anniversary of that second march on Washington. The creators and pioneers of this idea were Rob Eichberg, a founder of the personal growth workshop, The Experience, and Jean O'Leary, then head of National Gay Rights Advocates. National Coming Out Day was about to be launched. O'Leary expanded the West Hollywood office of NGRA to give National Coming Out Day its first headquarters. Activist Sean Strub got Keith Haring to donate his now-famous image of a person dancing out of a closet.
The first National Coming Out Day was celebrated with events in 18 states, and some of the national media attention included: CNN, USA Today, National Public Radio and Oprah.
Coming Out and staying out is a lifetime process so National Coming Out Day is not really just for one day and date. It can be celebrated, explored and recognized this year during the whole month of October and the rest of our lives. So with that being said, there's still time for us to recognize and support this important historic event.
Jerome Cleary is an actor, writer and comic at The World Famous Comedy Store-www.freecomedytickets.com and can be reached at: jeromeclearytalk@aol.com
posted by JeromeCleary @ 7:31 PM
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