Coming Out?

A topic that is often very heavy with debate, not just within the United States is when someone finally ‘comes out of the closet’, revealing to people that they are not straight. While this is usually just a personal matter that shouldn’t exactly involve strangers to give some kind of input on the matter, it isn’t a perfect world, so these things become hot button topics and news for us. Depending on what level of popularity you might have changes where this is going to be discussed though. If you are a small town person that is speaking to their parents for the first time about it or if you are a celebrity of some sort, both will most likely draw some kind of reaction.

In the movie Bully, there was a girl that was made out to be some kind of pariah when it became known that she was a lesbian. Everyone in this small town started to treat her like she had some kind of disease that could possibly be caught just by way of getting too close to her. Her parents also had to deal with the bully that came with their daughter coming out. People stopped associating with them, refused to look at them, or talk to them. Ultimately the girl had to move with her family since the school was not a very conducive environment for her.

That is what you might get from a small town knowing that your sexual preference is not similar to the ‘norm’.

On a grander scale there are quite a few public figures that have come out. Some with welcoming responses and some with hushed. One of the more recent figures that caused quite a substantial shock to people that hadn’t been in the loop before was Frank Ocean. He was hip-hop artist that had written many different songs, be it love, and be it anything to his prerogative. Last year thought he wrote a blog post about his first love last year, that first love turned out to be a ‘he’ instead of a ‘her’.  While this was shocking in itself, the people that stepped up to support him after were more shocking. Tyler the Creator, someone that has often been called out for his homophobia slurs, just happened to be one of the first people to congratulate him for it.

The most recent outing happened just yesterday, it was Jason Collins, a veteran for the Washington Wizards. While there has been a former NBA player to come out as gay in the past, this is one of the first to come out while actively playing still. This is usually a sport, along with football, where you won’t find lots of people trying to admit this openly since it makes other people possibly perceive you as feminine or girly in some way. In spite of this though, he has received tons of support since coming out from other basketball players and other sports related men as well. Even if there is still plenty of hate from people that lurk behind the anonymity of the Internet to try and oppress this man from stepping up and coming out.

Personally on the matter, I’m looking forward to the day that it isn’t national coverage news when someone comes out. When that day happens I’ll know that we are finally moving towards a better understanding of the LBGT community as a whole and no longer seeing this as some kind of spectacle to watch and study.