Student groups celebrate tolerance, coming out

For Rainbow Alliance Vice President Michael O’Brien, coming out as gay to his parents made for a funny story.

O’Brien,a sophomore majoring in German and Russian, will probably recount his story several times this week as part of Rainbow Alliance’s celebration of National Coming Out Week.

O’Brien came out to his parents as a freshman in high school when his iTunes purchase history revealed that he’d purchased a dating app.

“Is there something you want to tell me?” O’Brien recalled his father asking.

“My parents are really accepting,” O’Brien said. “It was just a really embarrassing, really funny way of coming out.”

Student organizations will hold several events during National Coming Out Week, which starts today and will lead up to National Coming Out Day on Friday. Throughout the week, the events will encompass issues of social equality, including coming out and feeling comfortable with one’s sexuality.

The Rainbow Alliance will host a Speak Out event at 8:45 p.m. Thursday in room 630 of the William Pitt Union. At this event, attendees can feel at ease coming out for the first time or sharing their own stories of coming out.

“That’s usually very powerful,” O’Brien said. “People are either in tears or laughing.”

Senior psychology major Emily MacLean, vice president of Pitt’s Campus Women’s Organization, attended the Speak Out night last year.

“I think having the freedom to tell your story and be yourself and having a week where there are no boundaries to what you want to say about your community is a good thing,” MacLean said.

The Rainbow Alliance will team up with Campus Women’s Organization for Tuesday’s Take Back the Night event at 7 p.m. in the Ballroom of the William Pitt Union. The event highlights sexual violence against certain groups, including women and LGBT people, that might face a greater amount of violence especially after dark. After learning a number of chants and gaining more information about sexual violence on college campuses, participants will take to the streets of Central and South Oakland to raise awareness about the issue. 

“Everyone deserves to be able to walk alone at night,” said Eleanora Kaloyeropoulou, a sophomore majoring in women’s studies who also serves as CWO’s business manager. 

For Kaloyeropoulou, it is important to show support for many different disenfranchised groups. 

The Rainbow Alliance is coming on board with the project to show support for Campus Women’s Organization. Kaloyeropoulou said that minorities and oppressed groups must band together to look after one another’s interests.

“You can’t oppress one population of people without directly affecting someone else,” she said.

On Oct. 7, the Rainbow Alliance will hold an asexuality workshop at 8:45 p.m. in Dining Room A of the Union. Asexuality is an orientation that includes people who have no desire for sexual activity,  or may otherwise identify as having no sexual orientation. O’Brien said it is important to acknowledge asexuality as an orientation because so many people forget that it exists.

The Rainbow Alliance will also host an Out in the Office panel featuring professionals from the Pittsburgh community who identify as LGBT.

“I know that [Coming Out Week] definitely makes you feel publicly included, whether or not you chose to come out during that week,” Kaloyeropoulou said. “It’s nice to feel supported so publicly.”

National Coming Out Week will culminate with celebrations Friday, both on and off campus. Pittsburgh’s Market Square will host its Out for Equality event from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. The Rainbow Alliance will also celebrate with a “ocial shindig starting at 8:45 p.m. on the sixth floor of the William Pitt Union.

“Personally I’d say that while we don’t want to force anyone into coming out, as the Rainbow Alliance, we always encourage it,” O’Brien said. “What better a time to come out than National Coming Out Week?”