National Coming Out Day comes to UH Manoa

By Tiffany Hill, Tracy Chan, Matt Marzi, Matt Murai, and Brandi Salas

Camaron Miyamoto can still remember telling his parents for the first time that he was gay. “For me it was important to share who I am with my family- with people I love,” said Miyamoto, who added that he felt a great sense of relief in talking to his parents, who accepted and supported him.

More than 20 years later, Miyamoto is now the coordinator of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Student Services Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. On Oct. 11, the Center and several other LGBT organizations, celebrated National Coming Out Day with booths, T-shirts and live DJs in Campus Center that emphasized students’ diversity and sexuality.

“This is a wonderful day of celebration for our UH community,” Miyamoto said, “no matter what your sexual preference is.”

The history of LGBT

Although coming out was relatively easy for Miyamoto, awareness and acceptance of gay and lesbian rights has not always been as prevalent in society as it is now. Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, a writer who first published the term “homosexual” in 1869 in Germany, is seen as the pioneer of the LGBT rights movement.

It was almost a century later in the 1950s and '60s that gay and lesbian groups became more prominent in American society. At the end of the 1960s and in the 1970s the Gay Liberation Front and the gay rights movement emerged and began making progress for gays and lesbians.

The emergence of AIDS in the 1980s caused the gay and lesbian community to focus on better sex education, along withpursuing more political and social freedom, such as acquiring the legal right to same-sex marriage.
National Coming Out Day was started by Robert Eichberg and Jean O’Leary in 1988, a year after the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. It was not until 2001, however, that it was nationally recognized in the United States as a day to celebrate and support gays and lesbians.
“Especially in times of need, it’s good to have additional support,” said Miyamoto, who is the event coordinator of the day on campus every year.

Social support groups

Miyamoto said that for many LGBT students, coming out to family and friends can be a difficult time. “I know of students who have no support…students who fear they do not have support, students who get kicked out of their houses,” he said.
Miyamoto added that the significance of Coming Out Day is to ensure that everyone, regardless of her or his sexuality, feels safe on campus and knows that they are not alone. Colorfully decorated information tables by the LGBT Center and the Gay/Straight Alliance organizations on campus joined others, including Logo TV and Kulia Na Mamo.

“Any (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer) is capable of doing anything," said Kylue West-Williams, a counselor for the transgendered at Kulia Na Mamo. "We’re all different in many, many ways.” West-Williams explained that her organization provides social justice to the local LGBT community, especially the Native Hawaiian transgendered.
A male-to-female transgender, West-Williams began working as a volunteer for Kulia Na Mamo in 2006 after winning the Diva Polynesia pageant the year before. She now works in transgendered case management and is a certified counselor for HIV.

West-Williams said she was excited to be a part of such an important event and thinks it’s great that the university promotes LGBT awareness and support. “People are aware that they don’t have to hide who they are and not be ashamed to express themselves,” said West-Williams. “Identifying sexuality is, in part, realizing our world is diverse.”

David Maxwell, a freelance photographer, was covering the event for Odyssey Magazine. “I don’t have any formed opinions one way or another,” he said. “I’m asexual…but I support everybody.” He added that last year he was involved in the gay and lesbian film festival in Hawaii.

Coming out at UH

To promote the event, the LGBT Center made more than 500 T-shirts bearing the slogan, “closets are for clothes.” The t-shirts were available in the Center’s office the week before the event, with only a few left over on Coming Out Day. “They were really popular,” Miyamoto said.

Student Kevyn Fong, an ACM major and secretary of the XYZ Gay/Straight Alliance, designed the black and white shirts.
“I was looking online at a whole bunch of other T-shirts that other organizations made,” Fong said. “And then I just thought…the whole term ‘coming out of the closet,’ it’s a play on words.”

Sarah Mendoza and her boyfriend Alvin Acupan were both in support of National Coming Out Day. “I think it’s a good idea; they are always fighting for their rights,” Mendoza said. She added that she has a lot of gay friends herself. Miyamoto said that because of events like National Coming Out Day, students are more free to express who they are. “We must work together to end discrimination,” he said.

Photo credits: Tracy Chan Students at UH Manoa celebrate National Coming Out Day.	An LGBT Center volunteer hangs Coming Out Day banners at Campus Center.