Why National Coming Out Day matters, no matter who you are

"Come out, come out, wherever you are" -- Harvey Milk

Today is National Coming Out Day, an observance in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community that marks the anniversary of the 1988 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The premise is simple:

Political and social change towards freedom and equality comes from people speaking out about their support for freedom and equality, being proud of who they are, and putting names and faces to the LGBT community and the friends and allies who support that community.

Why? Because it's harder to be a bigot or a homophobe or a bully when you know that some of your closest friends, family members, colleagues, and neighbors -- and some of your favorite actors, artists, athletes, musicians, politicians, and cultural leaders, as well as many of the military servicemembers defending your country (more than 14,000 of them dismissed under Don't Ask, Don't Tell to date) -- are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. It's harder to be a hypocrite, living in the closet while publicly condemning homosexuality like so many of our most vocal politicians and religious leaders keep proving to be, when you know that your friends, supporters, community, and voters would support you if you were out or, at any rate, would rather know the truth than have you living a harmful lie.

Today's a day to celebrate and support equality, no matter who you are. If you're lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender yourself, today's a good day to tell somebody you haven't told before. And even if you're not, make it known to the people in your life that you support the right of every American to live openly and proudly without discrimination, that you support the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, that you support marriage equality in your state and in your country, and that you support anti-discrimination and hate crime laws in your community and anti-bullying policies in your schools. Take some time today to try to open somebody's mind.

The individuals, religious groups, and political organizations who oppose LGBT equality on every front are quite vocal about it, and they speak -- and vote -- in powerful numbers, which means you can't afford to be silent. Silence does in fact equal death, as the old gay rights slogan had it: This month alone we've seen young people across the country tortured, bullied, pushed to the brink of suicide and beyond, their rights violated in ways that would be unimaginable if we hadn't been seeing them detailed so explicitly in horrifying recent headlines, merely for the perception that they were gay.

Whether you're liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat or Tea-Partier or Independent, religious or no, take the opportunity today to tell somebody that you support LGBT equality, even if your religious text of choice has something to say to the contrary or if homosexuality is abhorrent to you personally: Rights are rights, freedom is freedom, and the American dream is in need of a little upkeep.

And as for me? My regular readers will have perceived -- and I've said it openly in these columns in the past -- that I am bisexual. I have had successful lesbian relationships throughout my life, am currently in a successful heterosexual relationship, recently helped see a close friend through his transition from female to male, and write frequently here about my support on a broad range of LGBT issues including compehensive sex education, sexual health initiatives, marriage equality, and more.

Today I'm coming out, as I do just about every day, as an ally of the LGBT community, as a voter who supports LGBT equality, as a parent raising two children to respect all people regardless of their sexual orientation, as an educator who has worked to create safe communities in schools and LGBT centers for young people, as a citizen who will continue to stand against hatred, homophobia, bigotry, and bullying wherever I see it, in my own family and community, and as a writer with a national platform and international audience to help shout it to the world.

Via HRC.org:

"Whether you're lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or not, be proud of who you are and your support for LGBT equality this Coming Out Day!"