Features - Coming Out Week at UMaine
The rainbow pride flag flies on the UMaine Mall in recognition of Coming Out Week.
By Laila Sholtz-Ames
Journalism major/Honors College, Exeter, Maine
Coming Out Week is a series of events from October 26 to November 1st that recognizes and supports the University of Maine’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) community.
Organizations such as the Wilde-Stein alliance for sexual diversity, the Division of Student Affairs and Student Government all came together to educate the community on GLBT issues and to raise awareness. Coming Out Week began Monday afternoon with the pride flag-raising in front of Fogler Library, followed by a walk around campus where participants discussed hate crimes against people regardless of their sexual orientation.
“We drew figures of certain people who were victims of hate crimes and then we wrote in the offense, such as Emmitt Tell who was killed for looking at a White woman,” said Jackie Ransom, a second-year student who works with the No Place for Hate campaign to end discrimination. “It was really amazing.”
The events continued with Tuesday’s screening of “Milk” a film about Harvey Milk, the 1970s gay activist who later became California’s first openly gay elected official. The pinnacle of Coming Out week was “Guess Who’s Gay,” an eight-person panel featuring people of all different sexual orientations. Audience members, after asking questions like “What is your favorite movie” and “What is your favorite drink?“ were asked to vote by a show of hands as to who they believed was gay, straight, transgendered or bisexual. The panel then discussed issues like discrimination and acceptance across campus.
“It’s a little different being on a panel and having people ask you personal questions about your sexual orientation, especially because I‘m used to being in environments where I wasn’t supposed to discuss it” said one panel member who identifies as a transgendered person. “But it’s great to able to be open and honest.”
It didn’t matter whether they were gay, lesbian, straight or transgendered — people were able to ask questions and have conversations about sexual orientation, something that even in 2009, people are sometimes afraid to talk about.
“I think having something like Coming Out Week is great, because it really helps with awareness,” said Wilde-Stein President Zachary Knox, who also served on the “Guess Who’s Gay” panel. “In a campus this size of about 12,000 about 10 percent of students are GLBT, so we do have a lot of supporters and a lot of allies.”
After the “Guess Who’s Gay” panel, Coming Out Week continued with free HIV testing for students and a guest lecture by First Lt. Dan Choi, an American infantry officer and Arabic linguist who served in Iraq but was discharged after coming out on The Rachel Maddow Show in March 2009. Choi is now a GLBT activist and is working to challenge the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy that forbids soldiers from being openly gay. Choi said that he feels it is important to educate the public about gay rights, especially within the military. Despite his dishonorable discharge from the armed services, he will continue to actively work for gay rights.
Coming Out week will wrap up with a Halloween dance sponsored by Wilde-Stein, but UMaine’s Rainbow Resource Center continues to not only advise and advocate for students, but provide the campus with education and resources available for anyone seeking information and awareness about GLBT issues and concerns.
“Really, the main thing is for everyone to accept people in general,” said Harry Hayes, a senior Political Science and Psychology student. “I don’t see it any different from any other fact about people. We all could do a better job of accepting strangers as well as friends for who they are.”
