{"id":1600,"date":"2018-11-17T17:52:51","date_gmt":"2018-11-17T17:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/?p=1600"},"modified":"2018-11-17T17:52:51","modified_gmt":"2018-11-17T17:52:51","slug":"national-coming-out-day-brings-lgbt-stories-to-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/2018\/11\/17\/national-coming-out-day-brings-lgbt-stories-to-light\/","title":{"rendered":"National Coming Out Day Brings LGBT Stories to Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Vicky Gu ’20<\/strong><\/h4>\n

On October 11, an array of guest speakers increased awareness about the realities of being LGBTQ+ by sharing their coming out stories for National Coming Out Day at Pingry. The event also included time for students and faculty to volunteer to share their past and present stories. Although the nature of the speeches and discussions was serious, there were plenty of lighthearted moments. Overall, the event was not only informative, but fun and enjoyable as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to shared stories, the event, held in the multi-arts room, also included food and rainbow-colored desserts like cake, cookies, and cupcakes. Fun music helped to enliven the atmosphere as well. Instead of only receiving a lecture about the difficulties of being LGBTQ+, the audience received first-hand accounts of its realities. These realities were sometimes about very sensitive and difficult times, such as when a speaker was realizing for the first time that they were gay. As one student said, \u201cthe hardest part for me was coming out to myself.\u201d However, the accounts were sometimes cheerful as well, such as when a speaker came out to their family, and they accepted them wholeheartedly. \u201cA lot of times, we hear about only the bad side\u201d about being LGBTQ+, says Ethan Malzberg (VI), who leads the Gay-Straight Alliance along with Veronica Williams (VI) at Pingry. \u201cA lot of times, there are good, happy parts as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This year, National Coming Out Day at Pingry emphasized this more positive aspect of being and learning about being LGBTQ+, and the atmosphere was thus extremely conducive to both learning and sharing personal experiences. \u201cIt\u2019s a time of both learning and fun,\u201d Ethan says. The leaders of the Gay-Straight Alliance at Pingry wanted it to be an \u201coverall happy event\u201d, and they were more than successful with that.<\/span><\/p>\n

The leaders of the Gay-Straight Alliance hope that people who aren\u2019t a part of the LGBTQ+ community will be able to be able to better sympathize with those who share their stories. To those who are LGBTQ+, they hope that the event will help remind them that they are not alone. To everyone not out of the closet yet, no matter their situation, the leaders hope they will be inspired by others who have shared their stories to someday come out when it feels appropriate for them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The event also made clear that the LGBTQ+ affinity group is not limited to those who have come out but also welcomes those who are questioning their identities. The overarching goals of Pingry\u2019s Gay-Straight Alliance are essentially to identify and increase the visibility of issues concerning those within the LGBTQ+ community inside and outside of Pingry. As Annaya Baynes summarized, \u201cyou just have to be who you are,\u201d and National Coming Out Day tries to help address that struggle each year.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Vicky Gu ’20 On October 11, an array of guest speakers increased awareness about the realities of being LGBTQ+ by sharing their coming out stories for National Coming Out Day at Pingry. The event also included time for students and faculty to volunteer to share their past and present stories. Although the nature of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":1527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[134,10],"class_list":["post-1600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-school-news","tag-lgbt","tag-school-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1600"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1601,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1600\/revisions\/1601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}