The Power of Coming Out
http://transgenderequality.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/the-power-of-coming-out/Twenty-three years ago today, I was in Washington, DC for the 1987 March on Washington, the very first Coming Out Day. The poster still hangs on the wall behind my desk.
I was 22 years old and had come out three years earlier. Standing in the midst of the tremendous crowds pouring into the National Mall from all directions gave me an entirely new vision of what it meant to be queer (the word I used to describe myself then), at a time when we were far less visible than we are now. We had strength, we were beautiful, we were proud, and we still are. We were also in mourning as we watched the beautiful Names Project Quilt squares covering the Mall, commemorating those whose lives were lost to AIDS.
