Florida Times-Union’s National Coming Out Day coverage

Today, Oct. 11th, is National Coming Out Day in the U.S. The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, my former paper, featured three vignettes on local people and their coming out stories.

The piece, written by reporter Mary Kelli Palka, begins with this:

Throughout the United States today, people will openly support equality to mark National Coming Out Day. Others will first share that they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. But people don’t just come out one day of the year. They tell people all the time – family members, co-workers, new people they meet. Sometimes they’re met with support and love. Sometimes they’re not.

Here’s how the package started on A1:

And here’s an inset of that package:

Photographer Bruce Lipsky shot that photo of Charlas “Charlee” Dehling, the first person profiled in today’s piece. Dehling has a great quote:

“[Staying in the closet was] fueled by fear of being ridiculed, rejected, passed over, being held back in my ambitions and self-preservation,” she said.

Later, Mary Kelli writes:

Dehling said she’s telling her story not as a rally cry to get others to come out. Instead, it’s a rally cry for normalcy. She just wants to be treated like everyone else, with the same rights as people who are heterosexual.

To read the full piece, go here. To read Florida Times-Union reporter Kate Howard’s piece for Coming Out Day in 2010, go here.

Did your publication do something for Coming Out Day? Feel free to send it. I’ll gladly post it up here.

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