Today is National Coming Out Day.

I remember back in 1991 (I came out in 1990) my Gay student group made a huge production of the date. A few weeks prior to the date, I was going all over my college campus in Kansas City putting up hand-made signs on the bulletin boards that said "C.O.W. Is Coming." I was enjoying my slyness. Then I finally posted similar signs that said "Coming Out Week is here" or something like that.

Coming Out Day fell on a Friday that year as well. We had put together a week of activities that year. We had a band playing in the middle of campus with a big banner about coming out. We had a movie festival day. We had a lecture series. And we had activities like "Wear jeans on Friday if you're gay" which, believe it or not, freaked some straight guys out enough to make sure they weren't wearing jeans that day.

We had a great week. We raised awareness and made a space for Gay life. We caused such a ruckus that week that we did actually get some protests. On Friday of that week there were suddenly all these chalk markings on the sidewalks of campus that said "Gay Go Away" and other such things. At first I took it jokingly and went into the Student Life Office and told the secretary in the office (whose name was Gay, believe it or not) and joked with her that they were telling her to leave. Later in the day I got real worried that there could be some violence and I did get nervous going to my car which was isolated on campus. I was so out by then that I was pretty much known as the "gay guy" on campus. Luckily, no violence occured, but the fear was there.

And I guess that's what Coming Out Day is all about in a sense. Fighting fear and overcoming it. Finding your inner strength. Being and becoming your full self without social pressure. Being strong enough to be.

So come out, come out whereever you are today, and let the world (or at least someone in your life) know that you're you.