Members of the Tufts community gathered at the Mayer Campus Center yesterday to observe National Coming Out Day, which shows support for members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community.
Participants packed onto the lower patio of the Campus Center for the rally, which aimed to celebrate the "coming out" of individuals as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or allied.
The event featured scheduled speakers but also offered a free-form opportunity for students to come to the microphone in order to reflect on their experiences as members of the LGBT community, a move designed to build a greater sense of unity, according to Mark Tyson, an intern at the LGBT Center.
"It's great because people can share their stories and it gets really emotional; it's a great bonding experience," Tyson, a sophomore said. "It makes everyone feel closer to one another. For people who haven't come out yet, we hope we will create a safe space so that people will become more comfortable to come out."
Nino Testa, a doctoral candidate in the English Department and intern at the LGBT Center, emphasized the event's ability to provide support for people struggling with their sexual identity.
"I think that what National Coming Out Day and what Coming Out Day at Tufts is about is providing resources and examples for LGBT people and their allies who need support, and showing the incredible diversity of queer experience, which partially means that we don't assume that any one way of being ‘out' is the right way to be out," Testa, who also teaches Intro to Queer Studies in the Women's Studies Department, said.
During a speech at the event, Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman noted that Tufts has historically sought to be a welcoming environment for members of the LGBT community.
"Tufts has always been a place of major activity for the LGBT community and a place where people could come and be proud to be members of this wonderful community, and proud to have one of the most active ally networks in the rest of the community as well," Reitman said.
Addressing the crowd, Assistant Professor of Music Stephan Pennington explained that the LGBT community must reach out to other marginalized groups in order to achieve equality through activism.
"In 2008, Proposition 8 was passed, outlawing gay marriage in California, and Equality California blamed black people for the passage of that bill," Pennington said. "But Equality California did not do any activist work with the black community … [Equality California] said ‘Oh, we're interested in gay rights, not race issues; we're interested in gay rights, not women's issues.' So we have lost the intersectionality that made us strong."
Other speakers included Senior Lecturer of Computer Science Ben Hescott, Senior Director of Health and Wellness Services Michelle Bowdler, Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, Women's Center Director StephGauchel and Tufts University Police Department Sgt. Christopher McGee.
After the official speakers presented, attendees were invited to come up to talk. People shared their own struggles with coming out and their perspectives on the status of homophobia on campus.
One speaker, a senior who identifies as straight, lamented at the general lack of support for gay individuals by straight males, particularly in the Greek community.
"I'm sad that there aren't more straight men that are solid, reliable allies for the LGBTQ community," he said. "I am part of the Greek system and it saddens me to see gender roles continuously reestablished and continue to reemphasize the system of oppression."
Queer Straight Alliance Discussion Leader Sophia Laster, a sophomore, encouraged rally participants to remember the stories shared at the National Coming Out Day celebration.
"Yes, the truth of the matter is that this event is symbolic; what we say here today and what changes within us stays here within us and doesn't necessarily affect any sort of local, national or global change," she said. "That doesn't make it unimportant."
"Rather than [forgetting what you experienced here], I beg all of you to just think about what we can do so that next year more people can come up here and be proud of who they are, and more people across the country can be proud of who they are, and, legislatively, that things will change and make this world a better place," Laster concluded.
