During National Coming Out Week, thousands of Americans identify
themselves as part of a community facing discrimination far too
often.
President Bush’s recent declaration that the week
following Coming Out Week will be Marriage Protection Week, does
nothing to help curb this discrimination.
For many individuals, it takes tremendous courage to openly
acknowledge their membership in ““Â or support of ““
the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Sometimes
members of the LGBT community must endure hurtful attitudes and
misconceptions even from the people closest to them: their family,
friends or co-workers.
Given the courage it often takes for people to openly celebrate
during National Coming Out Week, the cowardly reaction so many
express is all the more disheartening.
Coming Out Week, after all, is nothing to fear. Sadly, people
across the United States ““ particularly this week ““
feel threatened by the LGBT community and, their reaction is to
harbor prejudice against it.
During Coming Out Week, people celebrate with music, food and
dance. People remember the progress the LGBT community has made in
this country and examine policies that still hurt this community
““Â policies that disallow military personnel from openly
expressing their sexual orientations, for example. Of course,
during this week, many reflect on why American society does not
recognize love between two people of the same gender the way it
recognizes love between a man and a woman.
On that issue, the discrimination against the LGBT community
festers not just in isolated areas or backwater towns
““Â but also in the halls of government, in many of the
country’s religious institutions, in its courts and even in
the White House.
In a proclamation issued on Oct. 3, President Bush declared that
“marriage is a sacred institution” and occurs only
“between a man and a woman,” effectively supporting the
reactionary movement to ban gay marriage. He proclaimed Oct. 12-18
Marriage Protection Week. Issued just days before the beginning of
National Coming Out Week, this proclamation is offensive not just
in its content, but also in its timing.
Bush had to have known his proclamation would cast a cloud over
the LGBT community. While so many are courageously uniting in
celebration of diversity, the leader of this country is creating a
divisive atmosphere.