Media.www.TheTriangle.org – Nancy Lan
Judging someone based on their gender identity or sexual orientation is the same as racially profiling someone, a gay rights educator said Oct. 11 during a National Coming Out Day event.
The speaker, Leif Mitchell, who works for the Gay and Lesbian Student Education Network (GLSEN) as well as the AIDS research center at Yale University, talked to a group of 25 students about recognizing Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning people (GLBTQ) as equal not special.
“Ultimately, I feel like there should be no need for anybody to come out, meaning that there shouldn’t be a need to say, ‘I’m gay.’ … It’d be great if we didn’t have to have a day like this,” Mitchell said. “But I think we’re pretty far off from that, so to be able to have a day where people can come out, acknowledge who we are, is, I think, really important.”