First appearing in the Rainbow Gayzette

How to Earn Money in Your Free Time

(Note to self: Come up with catchier title before submitting column.)

I was going to write about Omaha�s National Coming Out Day, but since many of you will not read this until after the events are over, (and many more won�t read this at all), I�ve had to rethink things.

In order to satisfy all of my readers, (and I live to satisfy), I�m including two versions of this column. One for those who read before the events, and one for those who read after. (Sorry, those of you who don�t read this at all. You�ll just have to imagine what I would say to you.) The next paragraph is for those of you who receive this before Saturday, October 7th. The paragraph immediately following is for those who pick this up too late.

I was going to write about the TG, (transgendered, to the uninitiated), community and what the different definitions mean, but since we�re hosting a panel on that exact topic, Saturday, October 7th, I�ll just invite you to be there. It�s much better to hear that sort of thing live, anyway.

Golly! What a great time we had at National Coming Out Day, in Omaha! Sure wish you could have been there! Lots of interesting discussions, many new friendships were forged, and Lordy! What those crazy folks from that one group did in public! You should have seen it! Oh, well. Maybe next year.

Seriously though, there was talk that NCOD wouldn�t happen. I wasn�t akin, (run to your dictionaries now, sweeties.), to the inside track, but the rumor was, there wasn�t enough interest.

I�m not sure if that�s a good thing or a bad thing.

How could it be a good thing, you ask? Same reason the Pride Parade and Festival keeps getting smaller: Maybe people don�t feel the need to have to campaign as hard as they once did. (I loathe campaigning hard. It�s so embarrassing to stand that way.) Perhaps the climate has changed so much, even in Nebraska, that many of us don�t feel repressed. Why come out if you�re already out and not having any problems?

If someone has come out and their families, coworkers, friends and neighbors still like �em, (the way it should be.), then why get into all that activism crap?

Would I ask so many questions if I didn�t have answers? Why do I keep asking so many questions? Was there a sale on question marks at Albertson�s?

The reason we continue to persue activism, such as NCOD and Pride Festival, even after we�re out, or at least self-respecting, is because not everyone is as out and self-respecting as we are.

We do these things to help others. Remember how life was when you were closeted? Remember feeling utterly alone in the world? We take to the streets, and talk to the press, and hand out literature because there are still people like us in hiding. We are out and proud, and sometimes it�s easy to forget from whence we came. (I told you you�d need that dictionary, and not because it has the syllable �dick� in it.)

Activism isn�t so much for you, it�s for other people. It�s good and fine and all to pitch a couple of bucks in a g-string at an AIDS fundraiser, or to write a check to the Rainbow Outreach Center, (which isn�t happening as often as it should.), but just being in a crowd of like-minded individuals can go a long way to helping someone too.

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