The LGBT Center and the Queer-Straight Alliance (QSA) joined together yesterday to celebrate National Coming Out Day with a gathering of community members and a series of speeches outside the Mayer Campus Center.
"The day was a great success," LGBT Center Director Dona Yarbrough said in an e-mail. "We had a good turnout despite the rainy weather, and many students told touching coming out stories."
Tufts' celebration took place one day earlier than the national day so that it could be held during Wednesday's open block, which begins at noon.
"The most memorable part of the coming out day this year [was when] we had one of the members of the LGBT Center put on the Jumbo suit and tell Jumbo's coming out story," said senior Sean Locke, an LGBT Center staff assistant who helped organize the event. "And then she took off the head and said, 'By the way, I'm coming out, too.'"
Locke said that some of the estimated 75 people who attended the event announced their own coming out at the rally.
"Some people I know were making it kind of their first grand announcement," he said. "Maybe their family knew and maybe their close friends, but [it hadn't been] something they were willing to share with everybody."
"We also had a couple people tell some very emotional stories about coming out to families that were unwelcoming to them, or having to deal with other issues that didn't have to do with coming out," Locke added.
On the night before the event, QSA members drew advertisements in chalk around campus and painted the cannon in rainbow colors "to make the campus more aware of the rally," Locke said.
Senior Elena Mead, who attended the celebration, was satisfied with how it turned out. "It's a big event for keeping the [LGBT] community visible and for promoting awareness about LGBT rights," she said.
