Celebrate National Coming Out Day by being proud

Over the next week or so, there will be events galore throughout the country to celebrate National Coming Out Day, which happens Oct. 11. You can attend lectures, hold a candle at a vigil to remember the lives of those who were lost to suicide or hate crimes like Matthew Shepard, or you can cut a rug or win some cash at Affirmation's Homocoming and Come OUT and Play events.
But if events aren't your thing, there are other ways to celebrate National Coming Out Day.
Be an advocate. Attend a rally. Be a peer or youth mentor. Donate to a cause like HIV or homeless youth or transgender activism. Educate voters. All are perfectly fine – if not exemplary – ways to show that you are proud of being out and want the same for all the others who are not yet out.
But the effort can be even more casual and go even deeper. It could just be a small gesture that says everything.
Hold hands with your partner on the bus. You never know when a depressed gay teen who thinks there is something wrong with him is going to be sitting across the aisle, see your open gesture of love and think that maybe not all is lost.
Bring your partner to a wedding, go out on the dance floor together and kiss when the glasses are clinked. It just might show a homophobic guest that love and committed relationships aren't just for those who already have the right to marry.
Strike up a conversation about acceptance with a less-than-tolerant member of your family. A good heart-to-heart could be all it takes to change their mind.
Granted, don't put yourself in danger – but take a chance. Sometimes it's easier for those of us who are out to do so quietly. We don't push our sexuality in anyone's face and they don't push their homophobia in ours. Usually. There are also those who feel that being gay is such a small part of who they are – why should they make it their job to advocate for gay rights or help gay teens or support gay issues or bring up their sexuality to others?
Being gay might not be all you are – nor should it be. That doesn't meant it's not important, or that you should ignore that part of yourself.
There are so many people – especially youth – who are afraid to be out at all, even to themselves. Sometimes seeing a positive gay role model is all their looking for to make them feel a little more confident that they are not defective or sinful or that there's something incurably wrong with them.
Seeing as though this is also National Gay and Lesbian History Month, we should honor and speak about all the advocates of the past who have made great strides forward in the past, like Harvey Milk, Ruth Ellis and Del Martin. But in honor of National Coming Out Day, we can be heroes, too, just by being out.