UCLA celebrates National Coming Out Week
By Melody Hanatani
Oct. 5, 2003 9:00 p.m.
Sixteen years ago, half a million people marched on Washington
D.C. to demand equal rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender community.Â
This week, Queer Alliance ““ a coalition of LGBT student
groups on campus ““ will coordinate the annual National Coming
Out Week to commemorate the historic event, which occurred on
October 11, 1987, and to attempt to increase visibility of the LGBT
community at UCLA.
“(The week) shows we are a big part of the community and
that our issues should be recognized,” said Queer Alliance
Co-Chairman Kian Boloori.
Adam Levy, founding member of LGBT Jewish group, Mishpacha,
believes National Coming Out Week is important to bring consolation
to LGBT students who are afraid to reveal their sexual orientation
and/or gender identity.
“We’re here to show students who are afraid, that
there is a huge movement on campus to fight for their freedom and
rights,” Levy said.
To celebrate National Coming Out Week, several events are
scheduled to take place.
Today’s Rock The Vote concert at Bruin Plaza will kick off
the week. Other events include an open-mic night and the grand
opening of the LGBT Resource Center in the Student Activities
Center ““ formerly known as the Men’s Gym. The
celebrations will conclude on Friday Oct. 10, with a dance in
Bradley Hall.
Toward the end of the week’s festivities, UCLA’s
first same-sex wedding ceremony is scheduled to take place on
Friday. Former UCLA students Peter Lopez and Willie Romero
will be wed in a ceremony officiated by West Hollywood Mayor
Jeffrey Prang. Prang himself is openly gay.
The ceremony is a symbolic event as same-sex marriages are not
legally recognized in California.
However, the wedding celebrates rights granted by a new bill
““ Assembly Bill 205 ““ which grants same-sex domestic
partners many rights similar to those of heterosexual married
couples. The bill was signed by Gov. Gray Davis on Sept. 19,
2003.
Boloori said the new law proves the LGBT community is equal to
the non-LGBT community.
“(The bill) is a validation of our relationships … that
we fall in love and live together,” Boloori said.
“It’s to show gay relationships are just as good and
the same (as non-LGBT relationships).”
The fight for equal rights for the LGBT community is how the
idea for National Coming Out Day was conceived.
Two LGBT civil rights activists, Robert Eichberg and Jean
O’Leary, founded National Coming Out Day to be a day when
LGBT people would be able to “come out of the closet.”
The first National Coming Out Day was on October 11, 1988.
The battle for LGBT civil rights has been apparent in
UCLA’s history as well.
Ronni Sanlo, director of the LGBT Resource Center, said UCLA was
the school that started the tradition of having an
“outlist.” Introduced in 1994 by UCLA student Matt
Pearson, the outlist consists of students, faculty and staff who
either belong to LGBT or are allies of the LGBT community. The list
is published annually in the Daily Bruin during National Coming Out
Week.
“My hope for National Coming Out Week is visibility so the
campus will see LGBT (people) and their wonderful allies in every
department and in every area … that the invisible population will
be valued both personally and academically as any other population
on campus,” Sanlo said.
