Cheers and Jeers: Rum and Coke FRIDAY!

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Friday October 10, 2014 · 4:30 PM PDT

2014/10/10 · 16:30

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…

Olly Olly Oxenfree!!!

Tomorrow is the 26th National Coming Out Day, an annual event celebrated since 1988 "to promote a safe world for LGBT individuals to live truthfully and openly."

Overall it's much easier and safer than it was when my closet door finally swung open---that was 1991 when I was 27 and couldn’t stand another minute of playing the Oscar-winning role of perpetual workaholic to justify my total lack of a love life. I haven't seen any statistics in the U.S., but in Britain the age of coming out has dropped like a rock:

[A]mong the over-60s the average age they had come out was 37. But those in their 30s had come out at an average age of 21, and in the group aged 18 to 24 it was 17.

We've seen a slew of prominent coming-outers recently, from athletes like Michael Sam, Jason Collins, Ian Thorpe and Tom Daley, to politicians like PA State Senator Jim Ferlo ("I'm gay. Get over it. I love it. It's a great life.") and seemingly half the talking heads on cable news. But for every one of them, there are thousands of regular Joes and Janes, in every community in America, who are moving the level of acceptance up, up, up.

Daniel Pierce, who raised over $90,000 after being kicked out of his house by his family for being gay.  Summer, 2014.

The face of evil, according
to Daniel Pierce's family.

Of course, coming out is still an act of courage. There are all kinds of awful things that can happen, as we saw last summer when Georgia student Dan Pierce was kicked out of the house by his unhinged family, something that is still ridiculously commonplace. Before I came out to my own family and co-workers, I had to first accept and prepare for the possibility of being deemed fundamentally FUBAR right down to my DNA by the people closest to me. It's why Coming Out Day for me is also a time to bow down and shout "We're not worthy!" to those who lived openly in previous and much more hostile decades. We stand on their shoulders.

Coming Out Day is a good time to remind the LGBT movement that equality is a numbers game: the more we come out, the more society at large---including the Daily Kos community, ya big lovable lugs---recognizes us, supports us, and advocates on our behalf towards the goal of full equality. Nobody said it better than good old Harvey Milk:

"Gay brothers and sisters, you must come out. Come out to your parents ... Come out to your relatives. Come out to your friends, if indeed they are your friends. Come out to your neighbors, to your fellow workers, to the people who work where you eat and shop. Come out only to the people you know, and who know you. … But once and for all, break down the myths, destroy the lies and distortions. For your sake. For their sake."