{"id":6539,"date":"2017-10-18T19:25:01","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T03:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=6539"},"modified":"2017-10-17T19:49:04","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T03:49:04","slug":"day-support-empowerment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/day-support-empowerment\/","title":{"rendered":"A day of support and empowerment"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><span>Sam Dunaway | News Editor<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span>The Associated Students of Western Oregon University and Stonewall Center teamed up on Oct. 11 to host a rainbow-filled, empowering National Coming Out Day celebration.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>National Coming Out Day is a day for individuals in the LGBTQ+ community to embrace their gender identity and sexual orientation. It\u2019s also a day to recognize the power and bravery in the coming out process. Oct. 11 marks the anniversary of the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights that took place 29 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>While the day has historically been celebrated within the Stonewall Center, its love and support spread to the second floor of the Werner University Center this year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThis year we wanted to create more visibility for people who might not know what the Stonewall Center is or don\u2019t know where to find it,\u201d commented ASWOU Public Relations Director Sophie Gilbert. \u201cWe want more visibility for National Coming Out Day as a whole, as well as ASWOU and the Stonewall Center.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Empowering coming out stories were written on a closet door. Individuals labeled nametags to embrace their identity and share it with others, and colorful hearts and pens were available for loving letters to friends.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Sam Fennell, Stonewall Coordinator, explained, \u201cNational Coming Out Day is really special because the coming out process is ongoing. It never ends for a gay person because you\u2019re straight until proven gay. So, it\u2019s a day where people get to embrace that coming out step.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>When asked why National Coming Out Day is important, Fennell replied, \u201cI didn\u2019t actually know it was a thing until last year and it\u2019s probably my favorite day of the year now. Just to see the community come together and we all support each other\u2026 And, no matter what, we all share a similar feeling of having to step out of that closet. So, it\u2019s a great day for everyone to embrace each other and embrace everything we\u2019ve all gone through together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Gilbert added, \u201cNational Coming Out Day is an empowering day for people in the LGBTQ+ community to celebrate their own identities and taking the step to announce their identity to people they love and care about. It\u2019s a day to just be proud of who you are.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Visit the Stonewall Center on the first floor of the Werner University Center for more information about the LGBTQ+ community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i><span>Contact the author at <a href=\"mailto:journalnews@wou.edu\">journalnews@wou.edu<\/a><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sam Dunaway | News Editor The Associated Students of Western Oregon University and Stonewall Center teamed up on Oct. 11 to host a rainbow-filled, empowering National Coming Out Day celebration. National Coming Out Day is a day for individuals in the LGBTQ+ community to embrace their gender identity and sexual orientation. It\u2019s also a day [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":823,"featured_media":6540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/823"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}