National Coming Out Day: I am Your Creation and I am PROUD

I have never been able to really celebrate National Coming Out Day before. Although I have been out for many years, my partner was not, so it was a bittersweet day for me. This year, however, is another story. I am so excited for this day. She is gone, and I am ME. And I am out and proud. 

Straight people ask you why is it so damn important to have "gay pride".  They say,"We don't have heterosexual pride."  With all due respect to straight people, yes you do. Its called Marriage. Its what you get to do everyday and what you often take for granted. Its that thing that you throw away 50 percent of the time like it means nothing to you. Its the well over one thousand rights that you don't even think about having, and we wish to God we had. So yes, every day is "straight day". Everyday when we turn on the television, there are heterosexual couples in love or lust. Public displays of affection everywhere we look. So yes, most days are your days.

So we have our days. We have "pride" days, and National Coming Out Day. When people put you down all your life and treat you as an outcast, the only positive move you can make is to take that which they deem an abomination and declare your independence from their judgment. That is what we as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people have done. We have declared ourselves proud to be who we are. 

The recent news stories of the suicides of so many gay young people brings to light the importance of this day of coming out. As long as we hide in the closet, the straight population can paint the pictures of us as a horrible people with an agenda of corrupting all of society. When we are out, they find out that our "agenda" is the same as everyone else. We want our family to be safe, we want to go to work in peace, we want to take the dog out for a walk and feel safe. 

National Coming Out Day is about putting a face to the word "gay". As long as we are seen as a large crazy rainbow mob, we will be discriminated against. But let them look at us as individuals and hear our stories, and their hearts can be changed. 

So on this day, I will show my face. I will say my name. I will hold my head high. And as Bette from The Word said when asked what she would say to God on Judgment Day:

I am your Creation, and I am proud.