Coming Out Day seen
key after scandal
BY GREG HERNANDEZ, LA
Daily News October 11, 2006
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Oct. 11:
National Coming Out Day |
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As the gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgendered community celebrates today's National Coming Out Day, the occasion
comes at a time when seven out of 10 straight adults in the U.S. say they know
someone who is gay, according to a recent poll.
It also coincides with turmoil in Washington, D.C., centered around former Rep.
Mark Foley, R-Fla., who announced he is gay after it was discovered that he had
inappropriate e-mail contact with underage congressional pages.
"Given the recent scandal in Washington, it's particularly important that people
celebrate Coming Out Day and really honor people who are living honestly and
openly," said the Human Rights Campaign's Mark Shields, director of the
grass-roots organization's National Coming Out Project.
"It's particularly important that GLBT people and straight people who care about
GLBT people talk about who they are and put a human face on the real community."
National Coming Out Day -- first held on Oct. 11, 1988 -- is designed to give
the gays and lesbians the opportunity to "come out" to others about their
sexuality and to raise the profile of the GLBT community.
Los Angeles County, which has a population of about 14 million people, has a
GLBT population that is estimated to be as high as 1.4 million, according to
Darrel Cummings, chief of staff for the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.
"Los Angeles has made tremendous gains over the years and it is seen as a GLBT
friendly environment," Cummings said. "But that doesn't mean that there is
not tremendous homophobia that continues to exist within the boundaries of L.A.
County.
"That's why coming out continues to be the most powerful political act that our
community can take. When we do that, we humanize who we are to our
families, to our co-workers, to our teachers and everyone we come in contact
with."
An online survey of just under 3,000 adults -- conducted by Harris Interactive
and released this week -- showed that of the 324 respondents who identified
themselves as GLBT, 83 percent consider themselves out.
Some 92 percent said they were out to close friends, followed by 78 percent to
their parents, 68 percent to other relatives, 68 percent to acquaintances and 66
percent to co-workers and colleagues.
Former Los Angeles Dodger Billy Bean, who was closeted throughout his
professional baseball career, said Tuesday that people need to be able to come
out in their own time.
"I think Coming Out Day is more about we as a group vocalizing our mass positive
experience of being out," said Bean, who came out after he retired and wrote the
best-selling memoir "Going My Own Way."
"None of us start at the same place and time," Bean said. "When I was in a
position emotionally to make it happen, there was such a relief in living
honestly and being able to give my family and friends and people I care about
the opportunity to know me completely. I just became so much closer to
them. As time went by, I even got closer to the guys I played baseball
with."
"It's about showing people that you can live a life that is complete and full
and honest in an open way."
greg.hernandez@dailynews.com
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