A little belated music for National Coming Out Day

I wanted to celebrate National Coming Out Day (a day late) this morning with a rousing version of Jerry Herman's "I Am What I Am," so spent a few minutes shopping YouTube for just the right version. Straight folks spook easily; I didn't want startle any who might come across this with too much drag and too much glitter.

So this version by the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, D.C., a couple of years old now, seemed about right.

The song was introduced in the 1983 Broadway production of La Cage aux Folles (music and lyrics by Herman; book by Harvey Fierstein) and has been something of a gay anthem ever since.

National Coming Out Day (artwork created by the late Keith Haring) came along five years later on Oct. 11, 1988, the first anniversary of the National March of Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, dreamed up by activist Robert Eichberg and Jean O'Leary.

The idea behind the day was that the simple act of becoming visible was the most effective strategy in the continuing struggle by LGBTQ+ people for a place at the table.

That has proved to be true, but it's a continuing struggle.

And of course for most queer folks, it's an internal struggle. All of us who are "out" and do our best to live authentically have "coming out" stories to tell, some of them quite traumatic.

For many if not most who remain in the closet, the possibility of losing family and friends, influence and position, is an operational fact of life, and most should not be hurried. The exceptions are politicians, preachers and others of influence who use their positions to work against their people.

Bless the parents of today who respond with love and acceptance when a child musters the courage to share his or her truth, no matter how old that child may be.  Gay kids, especially, bear a peculiar and fearful burden in many instances --- in order to live fully and realize their own dreams, they will have to shatter a few of the heterosexual fantasies of their elders.