Bryan Lutz, Queer
Graduate Student, English
INVOLVEMENTS AT OU:
SafeZone member, instructor and webmaster for the English Department
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO BE OUT?:
It is possible that our contemporary understandings of sexuality are too limited--that we are mediated by both representation and our proclivity to belong more than we realize. This is why visibility is so important: it is our own display of the possibility of self.
WHY ARE YOU PROUD?:
We cannot feel ashamed of being who we are, and we should not be afraid to embrace our many selves in all their complexity. But most importantly, if we are not defining ourselves, visibly, and with all the love we possess, then others will use our absence as an opportunity to define us, and they have not historically been kind.
WHAT WAS THE MOST DIFFICULT PART ABOUT COMING OUT?:
I am proud to see people coming together and taking a stand in solidarity with each other.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHERS WHO COME OUT?:
The most difficult part of coming out was: Loving myself, first. The rest fell into place.
THOUGHTS FOR NON-LGBT PEOPLE ABOUT LGBT PEOPLE AND CONCERNS:
I do not think that coming out changes you. What changes you is having to hide, having to lie, and having to repress a part of yourself. If nothing else, being in the closet is a bad habit and one that is not easy to break. But for each one of us who comes out we make it easier for those who follow behind us. I find comfort in that.
