2008 Woodie Awards
Suffolk celebrates National Coming Out Day
Christopher DeFillippi
Issue date: 10/14/04 Section: News
On Oct. 12, one day after National Coming Out Day, students and administrators attended a presentation about the experiences people at Suffolk have had with telling friends and family about their homosexuality.
The event was called Coming Out Stories and was the fourth event that the President's Office of Diversity Services has organized for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History Month.
"It's important we share our stories as GLBT people," said the discussion's moderator, Jeremy Hays, Assistant Director of the President's Office of Diversity Services. "As GLBT people, we need to come out."
The individuals who shared their coming-out stories included two administrators and one student.
They addressed the social and personal issues involved with coming out and answered questions from the audience.
"Compared to telling my girlfriend, telling my family was a breeze," said Chris Chartier, a member of Suffolk's GLBT club.
Raised as a Roman Catholic, Chartier described his family as especially tolerant - contrary to the church's official stance in regards to homosexuality - and described coming out to them as fairly simple. "For me, my greatest resource was friends and family," Chartier said.
"Everyone I told had no problems with it. Now my sister [is] always complaining that I always get cuter boyfriends than she does."
Tikesha Morgan, Assistant Director of Residence Life and Summer Programs, shared how that with her more traditional, black Pentecostal family, coming out presented more problems.
"My mother, 'til this day, isn't entirely accepting," Morgan said. "She says she still prays for me every night."
Although Morgan said her sexual orientation still concerns her mother, she noted that their relationship has become more civil, and that they now talk to each other about as much before her coming out. "I'm still hoping she'll come around," Morgan said.