Organizations aim to bring awareness, visibility with National Coming Out Day celebration
In celebration of National Coming Out Day, students at El Camino College participated in telling their truths as they walked through the rainbow doorway where they were greeted with pizza and drinks on Thursday, Oct. 10.
“Tomorrow is National Coming Out Day for the LGBT community,” First Year Experience Counselor Salvador Navarro said. “Its a day where we really embrace and allow people who identify within the queer spectrum to come out to in terms of their sexual orientation”
While National Coming Out Day is on Friday, Oct. 11, Navarro said organizers decided to do the event one day before so that more students could participate.
The Safe Zone Project, an initiative with the purpose of bringing visibility and understanding about the needs of the LGBT+ community, Gender Sexuality Alliance club and Student Equity and Achievement program presented the event on the Library Lawn to bring visibility to the invisible, Navarro said.
“As a gay person, it means a lot because when I was here at El Camino College centuries ago, we didn’t have any of this,” Navarro said. “The fact we’re able to bring some form of celebration to students who have not been celebrated a long time on campus until very recently, it’s very important.”
LGBTQIA+ resources at El Camino College:
Gender Sexuality Alliance student club: Meets Tuesdays, at 1 in Art and Behavioral Science Building, Room 334
Additional resources:
The National LGBTQ Scholarship Fund
Changing Legal Name and Gender
LGBT National Hotline: (888) 843-4564
Trans Lifeline Hotline: (877) 565-8860
