Coming Out Day, why it’s important not to stop celebrating it

On 11 October 1987, “The Great March” for the rights of LGBTQIA+ people took place in Washington, the following year the Coming Out Day and who made this birth possible were the psychologist Robert Eichberg and the American activist Jean O’Leary, who founded the Lesbian Feminist Liberation, with the aim of liberating LGBTQIA+ people. Free them from lives lived in the shadows, from the fear of showing themselves as they are, from the constant fear of other people’s gaze on them, from the discrimination of those who pretend to welcome and from homophobia. A day to give visibility to LGBTQIA+ people and remember that behind every coming out, i.e. the expression of one’s sexual or gender identity to family, friends and the outside world, there is a story.

Two years after the birth of Coming Out Day, on May 17, 1990, the World Health Organization eliminated homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses, recognizing it as «a natural variant of human sexual behavior». Although more than thirty years have passed since that date and just as many since the birth of Coming Out Day, there are still more than sixty countries in the world, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan in which homosexuality is considered illegal and is punished with imprisonment, in some cases even with the death penalty. This is the case of Ghana which provides for life imprisonment (it also happens in Sudan, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia) for homosexual relations and reaches the death penalty for what it defines as aggravated homosexuality, i.e. relations with minors, disabled people , unconscious or threatened people. Recently we have returned to talking about Cameroon where homosexuality is illegal but in recent months the daughter of the president of the country, Brenda Biyawho lives in Switzerland, published a photo on his Instagram profile in which he kisses the Brazilian model Layyons Valença. A coming out that marks the history of a country in which homosexuality is punished with prison terms of up to five years and a fine of up to 305 euros.

If homosexuality is not a crime in Western countries, such as Italy, discrimination and homophobia still weigh heavily. In our country, according to the data provided by Arcigay, in the last year they have been counted every two days, cases of violence or discrimination against LGBTQIA+ peopleBut even the walls of home are often not safe for those who decide to come out in Italy. This was revealed by the Agency for Fundamental Rights of the European Union through a study conducted on a sample of the LGBTQIA+ population in Italy: 18% declared they had undergone attempts at “conversion” or “healing” from homosexuality. According to the EU one case in five occurs in the family. Due to a lack of listening, bullying and verbal violence, several cases have also occurred suicidein Italy the most recent one concerns a 13 year old boy who took his own life in Palermo, bullied for being gay. This is why we must not stop talking about coming out and inclusion, even in a seemingly welcoming country like ours where the right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is currently fighting a personal battle against the rights of homosexual people in Italy. In our country, where a general dismissed from the army for having expressed homophobic, racist and anti-women opinions, finds himself as the leading candidate for a government majority party and in recent days we have seen him take the stage at the League event in Pontida, not only does equal marriage not exist but for example last year the Padua Prosecutor’s Office challenged the over 30 birth certificates registered by the mayor Sergio Giordani starting from 2017 of children born with two mothers. Those families are still waiting. Finally, the Senate is about to vote on the Varchi bill which aims to legally prosecute the use of gestation for others (GPA), making it a “universal crime” even if it occurred abroad, in countries where GPA is legal and regulated. .