Open minds, forum during coming week

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This week is National Coming Out Week, but it’s not for
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students only. It’s
also an opportunity for uneducated and homophobic members of the
UCLA community to dispel their ignorance.

LGBT issues are largely overlooked on the UCLA campus ““ a
campus oblivious to all that’s not considered mainstream.
National Coming Out Week creates an open forum for discussing
issues as diverse as violence against LGBT people, the suppression
of LGBT history and civil rights issues.

Ignoring LGBT issues because we “oppose”
homosexuality does not accomplish any social good. We can’t
pretend this community doesn’t exist; and so long as it does
exist, we cannot continue ignoring it. Overlooking the LGBT
community helps perpetuate the notion that it is deviant from the
rest of society.

Though it’s upsetting that members of the UCLA community
often face a hostile attitude when they choose to come out, they
should take advantage of the positive environment created by this
week’s events and express their desire to identify with the
LGBT community. By coming out, the LGBT community can become a more
visible, and hopefully more accepted, part of our society.

Those students who take this week to come out show tremendous
bravery; we just hope that heterosexual students are willing to
embrace a part of that by attending these events.

Until then, every week at UCLA should be Coming Out Week.