October 7, 2005

Universities lead the way with Coming Out Day events

by Anthony Glassman

Columbus--National Coming Out Day is on October 11, and universities across Ohio are leading the way in observing the celebration.

Ohio State University, Ohio University and Case Western Reserve University are all holding an entire week of events surrounding the holiday.

OSU�s National Coming Out Week will be crowned by a pair of �Queers on Wheels� workshops dealing with disability. On October 17 at 3 pm in 47 University Hall, there will be a workshop dealing with sexuality for GLBT people with disabilities, while the following day will feature a 10:30 am disability sensitivity workshop in 43 University Hall. Both workshops are open to all.

Other OSU events include �How Different Religions Respond to LGBT Issues� at 7 pm on October 11 in 1180 Postle Hall, �Sexuality, Culture and the Masturbation Taboo� on October 12 at 7:30 pm in 100 Ramseyer Hall, and Judith Frank will read from her novel Crybaby Butch on October 14 at 4 pm in 311 Denney Hall.

For more information on OSU�s National Coming Out Week events, call Brett Genny Beemyn, coordinator of the GLBT Student Services office, at 614-6888449 or e-mail beemyn.1@osu.edu. More information is also available at www.multiculturalcenter.osu.edu/glbtss.

Ohio University�s Out Week in Athens begins October 8 with a Casa Dance themed �Far Out!� at 10:30 pm.

The following day at 3 pm, there will be tie-dying shirts in the United Campus Ministry at 18 North College Street.

On October 10 at 6 pm will be a Coming Out Spiritual Service in the West Portico.

Tuesday, October 11 is designated �Gay? Fine by me!� Day, and students are encouraged to wear their T-shirts all day. An LGBTA faculty and staff lunch will be held at noon at China King Buffet, and at 8 pm, there will be a screening of Tying the Knot in the Scripps School of Journalism.

The October 12 Open Doors meeting at 8 pm is �Bring A Straight Friend Night,� and October 13 features a Queer Aquarium at Howard Hall at 11 am, followed at 6:30 pm by a Coming Out Forum in 304 Baker Hall. At 8 pm, author Kirk Read will give a presentation entitled �Telling Our Stories� in the Baker Hall 1804 Lounge.

Kirk Read will be present for the OutWeek Rally at noon on October 14 in the West Portico, along with Jon Hoadley, who will also speak on October 15 at 1 pm for a presentation, �Queer Guide to Political Activity� in 334 Baker, presented by the College Democrats.

The week wraps up on October 16 with Gay Day at Strouds Run at 2 pm.

For more information, go to http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~opendoor/outweek.html.

CWRU�s National Coming Out Week events feature the return of Coming Out Stories as well as a screening of Eating Out, which made a splash at the Cleveland International Film Festival earlier this year.

On October 10, there will be a campus-wide barbecue in the North Side Field at 6 pm, while on National Coming Out Day itself, Coming Out Stories will be told at the Arabica coffeeshop at 7 pm.

On October 13, Outfest will be held at 7 pm on Northside Field, and Eating Out will be shown at 7 pm, 9 pm and 11 pm in Strosacker Auditorium on October 14. The screenings are co-sponsored by the CWRU Film Society, and are $3.

For more information about CWRU LGBT events surrounding National Coming Out Day, go to www.case.edu/provost/lgbt.

Kent State University�s Feminists Union will host a Coming Out Party in Risman Plaza, while the College of Wooster will hold a drag show and contest in the Underground. For more information, go to www.wooster.edu/aandq.

In Dayton, the Dayton Lesbian and Gay Center will hold a benefit show at Club Masque on October 7 to celebrate National Coming Out Day, while Eternal Joy MCC�s annual Coming Out Day Prayer Breakfast on October 9 will feature Justin Cannon speaking about reclaiming the Bible as a tool of liberation and countering passages used to bash LGBT people.

In Cleveland, National Coming Out Day will see �Live Homosexual Acts,� an inaugural rally on Public Square at 4 pm. The Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center says that the �acts will be people playing with their children, students studying, actors rehearsing their lines, etc.�

From noon until 2 pm, volunteers will hand out literature on Public Square, and then there will be a rally from 4 to 6 pm, with a presentation at 4:30 pm on the history of LGBT people in Cleveland.

Logo, the LGBT cable network unleashed by MTV Networks, will feature celebrity National Coming Out Day promos all day long, and will screen Edge of Seventeen, a film about growing up gay in Sandusky, at 8 pm, followed at 10 pm by Coming Out Stories, a half-hour documentary about a woman who is out to everyone but her mother.

Not all cable systems carry Logo; check local listings.

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