Celebrate National “Coming Out” Week

This week is National Coming Out Week.  What is National Coming Out Week?  Well, it’s the week which holds National Coming Out Day.

National Coming Out Day was founded by Robert Eichberg and Jean O’Leary on October 11, 1988 in celebration of the first gay march on Washington D.C. in 1987. The purpose of the march and of National Coming Out Day is to promote government and public awareness of gay, bisexual, lesbian and transgender rights and to celebrate homosexuality.

National Coming Out Day is a time to publicly display gay pride. Many choose this day to come out to their parents, friends, co-workers and themselves.

What does it mean to “come out”?

Coming out is the process of personally accepting your homosexuality and disclosing it to family, co-workers and friends. Coming out is different for every gay or bisexual person. Some experience a lot of pain and anguish while for others acceptance is a joyous time. It’s perfectly normal to experience fear, doubt, loneliness, anger and even depression. Try to surround yourself with others that may be going through the same transition or who have already come out. They can be a great support network. If you don’t have any gay friends or don’t know anyone else coming out, there are plenty of discussion forums to be found on the the internet that have plenty of positive influences.

Also, keep your eye on GayAgenda now through Saturday for our special “Coming Out” post, including an interview with former NBA player John Amaechi!

Fear of Violence Builds for Bosnian Gay Pride

Bosnia’s first-ever gay festival opens this week amid fears of violence, with homophobia overriding the usual divisions among the country’s wartime foes – Muslims, Serbs and Croats.

The Muslim majority is particularly upset about the four-day Queer Festival because it will open in Sarajevo on Wednesday – during the holy month of Ramadan.

Many others, including members of various ethnic political parties, have gone as far as declaring homosexuality an illness and the behavior deviant.

Read the rest at ekathimerini.com.

Southern Utah Pride Not Easy to Come By

From an article in The Salt Lake Tibune;

Salt Lake City’s gay-pride festival draws tens of thousands of people. Major sponsors such as Wells Fargo, Hilton and Bud Light line up to splash their logos at the event. And politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, march in the parade - second only in size to Utah’s Days of ‘47 procession.
Not so at southwestern Utah’s only pride festival.  St. George-based Southern Utah Pride Association (SUPA), which serves the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) communities, struggles to secure sponsors, attract politicians and boost attendance in one of the nation’s most conservative regions - home to cities that spawned an official “U.N.-free

zone,” a short-lived ordinance requiring a gun in every home and a resolution embracing “natural” families.
Still, SUPA President Chris McArdle hopes the event comes into its own this year - the festival’s sixth - by luring 5,000 people to Springdale on Sept. 26 and 27.
“Last year, we had 1,013 - and we thought that was impossible,” he says, noting previous years had only a few hundred attendees. “We’re at that transitional period. Everyone who’s afraid to support us needs to realize that there’s a lot of people who do. The fear is they’re going to stick out.”

Read the rest of this article at sltrib.com.

Gay Fest in Cambridge Attracts 12,000

According to an article in pinknews;

Organizers of a diversity festival in Cambridge said they were delighted at the big turnout on Saturday.

The Pink Festival, now in its fifth year, enjoyed late summer sunshine. There was live music, cabaret and comedy from a host of acts. The event ended with a spectacular performance from dance DJ Sonique followed by gospel choir, Souls of Prophecy.

Organizers said more than 12,0000 people attended the festival at Cherry Hinton Hall in Cambridge.
Highlights of the day included X-Factor finalists Futureproof on the main stage. Adora, a contemporary female burlesque troop performed ‘bourgeois cabaret’ and sizzling routines in the Cabaret Tent.

“We are overwhelmed by the number of people who “came out” on Saturday,” said Paul Clarke, Pink Festival organizer. “It was the most amazing, perfect day we could have imagined.

Read the rest of this article at pinknews.co.uk.

So Here’s to You Mr. Robinson

The government department headed by Peter Robinson, the husband of infamous homophobe, Iris Robinson, is going to be allocating £80,000 to GLBT groups over the next seven months.

It has also been reported that that Stormont grant-aid of £100,000 has been allocated to the GLBT community during Ian Paisley’s period as First Minister.

It has also been reported that money from the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) helped fund this year’s Belfast Gay Pride parade.

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