National Coming Out Day or as NewNowNext calls it mostly pretty white guys come out and Ellen Page

I had kept this posting from New Now Next to write about the lack of diversity represented.  NNN tends to be very centered on a certain demographic.  What's lacking is very apparent in the pictures they decided to utilize on their website.  One quick glance and you would assume that only pretty white boys come out and Ellen Page.  If you click on the link you'll see 15 videos, only one which has a person of color.  Was it not evident that it was to be blunt, very white? Gay media sites are tone deaf when it comes to the representation of gender, race, age and body types.  In a year when Marriage Equality became a reality you would expect that to translate into overall LGBT visibility.  When Ellen Page is the only lesbian featured you know there was not much thought put into there so called National Coming Out Day post.  That is not to say she is not deserving of her spot because she is.  But another lesbian or two would have made this far more interesting.  Some of the individuals featured were never in precarious situations.  Such as the Rhodes Brothers.  Their coming out video drew a huge audience and they were invited to appear on the Ellen Show.  During the interview they were given $10,000 and a few months later they landed an acting gig on Ryan Murphy's Scream Queens.  Some have labeled their video a publicity stunt.  They had come out to their family way before they came out to their estranged father.  They had an established support system. They were never in danger of being disowned like Daniel Pierce who was met with violence and ultimately kicked out of his home by his parents for being gay.  This display of privilege skews perceptions of what coming out can be for those that come from different backgrounds.  It is great to see individuals come out and proclaim who they are.  The LGBT community needs more examples of bravery.  But it's also the responsibility of the gay media to present an honest account of what it is to come out.  Equality is what this year has been about.  It's time this translates into the representation of everyone that consider themselves part of the LGBT community.

Marriage Equality has been a part of an ongoing fight.  We need to get the Equality Act passed and most importantly we need to take care of the issues within the LGBT community.  We cannot spread a message of equality when it is not visible within our community.  If there is an example of the damage ignoring other groups can do is the debacle that was the Stonewall movie directed by Roland Emmerich.  We are creating history.  Let it be representative of everyone.  The gay media needs to shift it's direction or we face a greater challenge ahead of us.

Here is a selection of videos about coming out: