This Wednesday, October 11, is National Coming Out Day (NCOD). I don’t know how many people actually come out on NCOD, but that’s not really the point. NCOD can help those who are coming out find resources and support, and make all people aware of the ramifications of staying in the closet. These are both good things. Yes, Jim McGreevey and Mark Foley have recently demonstrated in spectacular fashion the perils of a long-closeted life, but they’re not really representative of the great masses of us not in positions of political power.
Being the celebratory type that I am, I want to suggest another way that online LGBT parents can observe this day. Let’s use NCOD to reach beyond the usual boundaries of LGBT blogs and forums and raise our visibility in the wider world of online parenting. Here’s my suggestion:
- Visit a non-LGBT-specific parenting blog or forum on which you don’t usually comment or post.
- Leave a comment or post about anything that catches your interest. Your comment does not have to be about coming out, or being LGBT (although it may, if you feel it’s relevant), but should indicate somehow that you are LGBT. For example: “When my partner and I took our son to the zoo . . .” or “One way my partner and I get our daughter to sleep is . . . “
If you need ideas for non-LGBT parenting blogs or forums, try the long list of “Mommy and Family” blogs at Blogher or the blogs at ClubMom. (Mom’s Daily Dose there has a lengthy blogroll of even more.) Parenting magazine also has a blog. Marthastewart.com has a number of parenting forums, as do American Baby and Child magazines. (Registration required for the last three.) Choose one of these or any other that catches your eye.
Leave a comment here, if you like, letting me know what you did.
This is not a bad idea but it is something glbt bloggers should be doing all of the time. If “we” aren’t, why aren’t we?
That’s a good point. I think many of us do comment on non-LGBT-specific blogs, but it’s not always obvious from our comments that we’re LGBT parents. In many cases, it’s irrelevant whether we are or not–but I hope that for National Coming Out Day, people will make a point of mentioning it.