GAYTWOGETHER

National Coming Out Day - October 11, 2012

On Oct. 11, 1987, half a million people participated in the March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. It was the second such demonstration in our nation’s capital and resulted in the founding of a number of LGBT organizations, including the National Latino/a Gay & Lesbian Organization (LLEGÓ) and AT&T’s LGBT employee group, LEAGUE. 

The momentum continued four months after this extraordinary march as more than 100 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists from around the country gathered in Manassas, Va., about 25 miles outside Washington, D.C. Recognizing that the LGBT community often reacted defensively to anti-gay actions, they came up with the idea of a national day to celebrate coming out and chose the anniversary of that second march on Washington to mark it.

The originators of the idea were Rob Eichberg, a founder of the personal growth workshop, The Experience, and Jean O'Leary, then head of National Gay Rights Advocates. From this idea the National Coming Out Day was born.

To this day National Coming Out Day continues to promote a safe world for LGBT individuals to live truthfully and openly.

Homeless Youth: The Next Battle For Gay Equality

NEW YORK — Iro Uikka clutches his throat as he describes the violent clash that led to spending his nights sleeping in New York City subway cars.

"When I told my mother I was gay, she grabbed me by the neck and threw me out," he says. "Then she threw my coat on top of me and shut the door." That was five years ago when he was 18, still living at home in Florida.

Uikka is among tens of thousands of homeless youths across America who are LGBT — lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Most are on the streets because they have nowhere else to go — outcasts who leave home after being rejected by family members or flee shelters because residents bully or beat them.

LGBT young people represent a dramatically high proportion of an estimated 600,000 or more homeless youths across the country — between 20 percent and 40 percent, according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute. But only about 5 percent of youths identify themselves as lesbian, gay or bisexual, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We've won battles for gay marriage and gays in the military," says Carl Siciliano, founder and executive director of the New York-based Ali Forney Center, the nation's largest organization for LGBT youth. "This is the next frontier, the next battle: helping these youths."

Gay Teen’s Anti-Bullying Video Touches Millions

Jonah Mowry couldn’t sleep the night before school started this past fall. At 4 a.m. the gay teen, who’d yet to fully come out, was still wide awake. Mowry, then 13, was terrified of walking through the doors of a school where he’d face kids who’d been teasing him since first grade. And so what did he do? He put himself in front of a camera and allowed himself to freely express his feelings of anguish. The result was a YouTube video that’s so compelling, touching, and surprisingly hopeful that it has been viewed over 5 million times in the past week and led dozens of teens to create their own videos offering Mowry support and encouragement.

The video was first made in August, but it just went viral and gained additional attention when Mowry posted follow-up footage on December 4. In the more recent video, a giggling Mowry, now 14, appears happy and his upbeat mood led some people to accuse him of putting on a fake performance and seeking publicity in the first video. But yesterday on ABC News, Mowry’s mother, Peggy Sue, 52, said that her son’s story is real.

A Note From Jonah:

I never expected in a million years that it would have such a wonderful impact on so many people. I am truly humbled and truly thankful for all the love, encouragement and support from people all over the world.

It's been incredibly overwhelming. I don't know what to say. Thank you so, so much!

Lastly, yes you have seen me happy in a couple short videos replies I posted; I would think that would be a good thing, and yes I do have friends, my High School friends, and I have made friends because when I came out they realized that they had hurt me and that they felt sorry. The video is real, and true.

In the last few months everything eventually came out in the open, I felt a huge weight off my shoulders; I'm happy, I'm excepted for who I am, I'm more confident and feel stronger every day.

Thank you all, Love and peace to all who are hurting.

Jonah Mowry

Bullied Ottawa Gay Teen Commits Suicide ------ Zach Quinto Tells Why He Came Out - Prompted By Gay Teen Suicide ----- Dan Kloeffler, ABC News Anchor, Comes Out - Prompted By Zach

Sad news to report from Ottawa:  the suicide death of Jamie Hubley, a 15-year-old gay teen who took his own life on Saturday after documenting online the final, painful months of his life.   Jamie wrote openly on his Tumblr blog of his struggles with depression, and in a post just three weeks ago, wrote, “I hate being the only open gay guy in my school".  ‘This hurts too much,’ was his last blog entry before his suicide.  http://natpo.st/ndKnQX

 

Jamie was described as a gifted actor and singer who loved Lady Gaga, Adele and Katy Perry, and posted numerous videos of himself singing on his personal YouTube channel including this rendition of Gaga’s “Born this Way,”  Jamie was a student at AY Jackson Secondary School in Kanata, Ontario, a suburb of Ottawa, where he started a rainbow alliance club for LGBT youth and their allies.  A Facebook memorial page is here.

UPDATE: Janie's father says ‘bullying was definitely a factor’ in son Jamie Hubley’s suicide – LGBTQ Nation - http://bit.ly/qHOtvl

ACTOR Zachary Quinto, decided to go public with his sexuality after after hearing about the suicide of Jamey Rodemeyer, a gay teenager from Buffalo, New York. according to his  blog post on his official website,

Rodemeyer took his own life in September, just months after making a video for the "It Gets Better" project, a campaign aimed at preventing suicide among bullied gay teens. 

Quinto, who also made an "It Gets Better" video for the project, said, "In light of Jamey's death, it became clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality."  http://bit.ly/mQJ9oT

Following Quinto's post, an ABC News anchor in the US reporting on Quinto used the opportunity to come out of the closet as well.  Reporting the story for World News Now, anchor Dan Kloeffler joked that he would reverse his personal policy against dating actors to go out with Quinto.

"...For the same reason that Zach decided to come out, I too, no longer wanted to hide this part of my life," the 35-year-old Kloeffler wrote. "There have been too many tragic endings and too many cases of bullying because of intolerance...as a journalist, I don’t want to be the story, but as a gay man I don’t want to stand silent if I can offer some inspiration or encouragement to kids that might be struggling with who they are."   "As a gay man I don't want to stand silent if I can offer some inspiration or encouragement to kids that might be struggling with who they are," he said. - http://huff.to/qSC4n0

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