Coming out week opens BC's closet

With a banner in the Quad and red "Support Love" T-shirts all over campus, the Boston College community celebrated National Coming Out Week (NCOW) with a series of GLBTQ Leadership Council (GLC)-sponsored events this week. The GLC is a semi-autonomous branch of the Undergraduate Government of BC (UGBC) concerned with GLBTQ - gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning - issues.

"Support Love" T-shirts were sold by the GLC last week and at the GLC-sponsored barbeque in the Dustbowl on Monday. The shirts will be sold at all NCOW events occurring this week. A catered Lesbian, Bisexual, and Questioning Women Lunch and Talk was held on Tuesday and featured a discussion on what it is like as a woman to come out at BC. Also on Tuesday was "Opening Boston's Closet," an open-mic event in the Vanderslice Cabaret Room that served as a chance for BC students to tell their coming out stories.

A Lesbian and Gay Faculty, Staff, Administrator Association (LGFSAA) lunch was held yesterday in the Faculty Dining Hall and served as a chance for GLBTQ faculty, staff, administrators, and students to meet. Last night in the Vanderslice Cabaret Room was another edition of "Guess Who's Gay: Roommate Edition," where pairs of straight and GLBTQ roommates were asked questions by the audience in an attempt to determine panelists' sexual orientations. Past "Guess Who's Gay" events have focused on life as a gay faculty member and as an AHANA student. "Guess Who's Gay", "Opening Boston's Closet," and the barbecue are all annual events of NCOW.

Tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Higgins 310, there will be a panel of members of the BC community focusing on the discussion of how race and sexuality intersect at BC. Friday night in the O'Connell House is "Come Out and Dance," a social event open to anyone in the BC community and a chance to learn dance moves from some of BC's student dance groups.

GLC, headed by co-presidents Celso Perez, A&S '09, and Elizabeth Ryan, CSON '09, has established four long-term goals for the year: to serve as a resource to the GLBTQ community at BC, to build community within the GLBTQ population and BC at large, to educate the BC community on GLBTQ issues, and to engage the Catholic tradition on issues of sexuality. Last year, GLC and the theology department co-sponsored a lecture series on Catholicism and Sexual Ethics. GLC hopes to continue this lecture series this year.

"We should always as a University be working toward being more accepting of GLBTQ students, especially here since there are a lot of misconceptions and not a lot of open dialogue on these issues," Perez said. "These are such a formative four years; it's an important time to have these conversations." He encouraged students to visit GLC's Web site at www.bcglbt.org to get involved and learn about upcoming events.

Scott Molony, GLC's director of communication and A&S '11, encourages students to attend GLC's open-to-the-public committee meetings every Monday. The committee is composed of 18 officers, and Molony reported an attendance of 60 at the first meeting of the year.

"We're working on being visible and celebrating [the GLBTQ community], but also acknowledging that there is homophobia at BC at large. We're trying to deal with that in a positive way," Ryan said. "One of our bigger goals for this year is working on branching out and collaborating with other groups on campus, whether cultural or otherwise. We're already very connected to UGBC and ALC, and we were part of a unity barbecue a couple weeks ago. We want to reach out and bring BC together as a whole community."

Other organizations at BC offer a chance for dialogue on GLBTQ issues. The Lesbian, Bisexual, Questioning (LBQ) is a queer women discussion group held on Tuesday nights in the Women's Resource Center. Lambda is another outlet for GLBTQ students at BC, organizing general meetings and social outings. Tentative social plans include movie nights and Saturday hikes in partnership with Global Justice Project (GJP) and Ecopledge.

"Events are not just for gay people, but for everyone to come together," Ryan said.