Date/Time
Date(s) - 10/11/2020
12:00 am
Categories
NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY
OCTOBER 11th
This may sound easy to some, but even in 2020 it is not. The staggering statistics of those individuals who live in silence or fear today, is just as powerful as it was in the past for so many people. The numbers of those we have lost to suicide, health issues and murder is too much to bear. Their lives filled with promise and ability to make this world a better place have been extinguished to just foundational memories of hope of a better tomorrow. Now, don’t get me wrong we have come a long way. But the road is long and it has many peaks, curves and valleys. I have no doubt that there will come a time in which one’s diversity will be equated with one’s strength. Where the collective of differences will work together to make an exciting and supportive world. Where everyone has a voice at the table and that voice really means something and will be counted. A time that will change us all.
So, as individuals find the courage to come out on October 11, 2020 we will celebrate them, this day and all of the important days that fight down discrimination and stigma. Let us all pause to really take a breath and think as we contemplate these thoughts. We all have a part in making it better and the more we accept and embrace our differences the stronger, more caring and loving a people we will all become.
We cannot and will not go back to a time where those, who through no fault or choice of their own, were judged to be treated unjust and with unthinkable cruelty. This is not the positive side of our humanity and it has no place on this small planet we call Earth.
Rik Cornell MSW, ACSW, LICSW
Vice President of Community Relations