Student Discussion: "So You Think You Know What Coming Out Is All About?"

I started planning this event as a means of coming to terms with the feelings of doubt and discord that I'd experienced in my daily life. I invited four sexual-minority students from ICU as guest speakers to share their personal experiences and discuss a number of questions concerning coming out. In addition, I invited Yoshimi Takada, a Human Rights Advisor and a Gender and Sexuality Counselor at ICU, to contribute her comments on the topic.
The event had two main objectives. The first objective was to re-examine the concept of coming out. I've often felt that discussions of coming out tend to ignore or overlook its diversity and continuity. For example, coming out as a lesbian is quite different to coming out as a transgender, but these acts are subsumed under (what is made out to be) the single, unified concept of "coming out." Coming out is also often seen as a decisive act of drawing a boundary that separates the before and after, but in fact it is not necessarily a single, life-changing act. Rather, it is more like a never-ending state that continues throughout one's life. An event based on students sharing their personal experiences is rare even at ICU. I feel that this event succeeded in re-examining the diversity of coming out by bringing together people who are usually simply grouped under the one category of "sexual minorities" to share their diverse experiences and insights.
The second objective was to use this re-examination to question the so-called "tolerance" of ICU culture. I've heard people say, "As ICU has such a tolerant culture, coming out is widely accepted here," but just what do they mean by acceptance? Do they really know what coming out is all about? Although the original objective was to question the ambiguity and misappropriation of "tolerance," unfortunately we did not have a chance to delve deeply into this issue at the event, partly due to lack of preparation. Although we weren't able to achieve all of our objectives, this event enabled me to reflect on and articulate the feelings I'd had throughout my life, and then communicate them to others. Although I had initially worried that it might be selfish of me to base an event on my own feelings and priorities, I came to realize that the more I cared about a message, the more I was able to muster the energy to share it with others. The effort I put into this event has inspired me to keep trying to send out my heartfelt message to the world.