The Color of OUT: More Social Media Campaigns Reach to Hurting Kids

Monday, October 11, was National Coming Out day, the date when LGBTs and their friends, families and co-workers (which basically includes about all of us) celebrate and support the courage to be one’s self, and not feel the need to hide one’s sexual identity. (In addition to the day, all this week is devoted to the same affirmation and celebration.)

The week feels particularly crucial in the light of the string of suicides last month by American teenagers—two only 13-years old– who each killed themselves after repeated and prolonged anti-gay bullying and harassment.

Another young man killed himself early this month. Zach Harrington of Norman Oklahoma was 19, and a talented musician.

As the month has worn on, there were more awful statistics.

Neon Tommy’s editor-in-chief has written a good story about some of the ways social media is playing a part in the newly urgent activism:

Here is how her story opens:

Twenty-seven-year-old Los Angeles resident Vince Wong received several requests to change his Facebook profile picture to show he’s part of an emerging movement.

It had nothing to do with legalizing marijuana nor did it address “whoregate” and “maidgate,” the latest scandals in California’s gubernatorial race.

Instead, he was asked this past week to “donate” his main profile picture to National Coming Out Day by colorizing it and including the word “Out.”

Wong, who is gay, joined 20 to 30 of his friends who changed their profile pictures in the past week.

They did so as part of “Count Me Out,” a grassroots social media movement tied to National Coming Out Day 2010. Social media users are encouraged to change their profile pictures on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and FourSquare to a tinted rainbow hue with the word “Out” or “Ally.” The campaign is designed to show support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities.

National Coming Out Day, Oct. 11, and the remainder of the week, comes after a slew of teen suicides have brought teen bullying and harassment into the national dialogue…..

Read the rest.

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AND WHILE WE’RE ON THE TOPIC: Is there a reasons why the Washington Post thought October 11 was a swell time to run a creepily anti-gay Op Ed?

To wit:

There is an abundance of evidence that homosexuals experience higher rates of mental health problems in general, including depression. However, there is no empirical evidence to link this with society’s general disapproval of homosexual conduct.

Thanks WaPo, for providing a platform for such rubbish. Your compassion, sensitivity and general sense of civic responsibility is genuinely astounding.