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Page 4 Alabama Fo, m October 1988
REMEMBERING OUR PAST
March On Washington, Oct.11, 1987

Why Come Out ?

Our silence is killing us. Our silence is allowing
society to make the rules for us by defining who
we are, and what we can hope to achieve in life.
Our silence is allowing ignorance and intolerance
to play decisive roles in such life-threatening matters
as AIDS funding, research and patient care,
And with silence comes invisibility.

Our invisibility is the core of the oppression. We
experience hate, fear and prejudice because people
don't know who we are. But we know. We are
their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and
mothers and fathers.

The truth is that we are evcrywhere. We are
lawyers, doctors, mechanics, engineers, architects,
teachers, bank tellers, secretarics, artists, and
truckdrivers. We work within every professional
field at every professional level. We touch the
lives of millions of pcople whose negative view of
homosexuality would change dramatically if they
knew who we arc.

Your coming out can help turn fear into acceptance.
One-to-one contact with gay men and lesbians
is our most powerful tool to bring about
major shift in society's attitudes. Coming out is
the most powerful statement we can make powerful
in its political influence and personally powerful
in releasing energy that is wasted in hiding
the truth.

Coming out. Changing the tide of history. You
can be an incredibly powerful force shattering the
wall of silence. Together, we can assume political
might which could end discrimination forever.
You can be a part of something very important.
Only your personal involvement will make this
possible.

Excerpted from "The National Coming Out Day
Kit"
For more information, call 326-8600.

Our Coming Out Stories
For Love and For Life
by Julie Smith

Fast October I was fortunate enough to attend the
March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay
Rights. Never have I expericnced such a feeling of
sheer exhilaration and happiness. There was so
much love and pride that day, and there was
sense of unity between lesbians and gay men that
rarely see in Birmingham.

Over half a million of us gathered in one place to
let the world know that we're tired of the closets;
tired of being labeled "child molesters" when
most of us have deep sense of love and caring
for the children of the world; tired of our brothers
dying because of a homophobic govemment that
thinks nothing of spending billions of our tax dollars
on lethal weapons but begrudges every penny
it has to spend to find a cure to the most lethal disease
this century has known. I could go on but we
all know what the issucs are. We want and deserve
change, but we will never achieve it as long
as we remain in the closet.

The wo-mandate for the first anniversary of the
March on Washington is that every lesbian and
gay man come out to at least one person on October
11th. Just think...in one day over 20 million
heterosexuals could be enlightened! We have the
power to change people's altitudes towards us. It
is crucial to act, if at all possible, upon this nation-
al initiative.

It may not be comfortable or safe for some of us
to take this giant step. But as many of us as possible
must let those around us know that we are everywhere,
we are marching forward and we will
not be turned around. Like the popular March on
Washington slogan says: "For love and for life,
we're never going back." October 11th...let's do
it!