Celebrities coming out....

Today I read an article about 13 celebrities rumored to be gay that afterwards came out.

As I read the article in the Huffington Post and the comments accompanying it, I was thinking of the what had happened earlier that day.

My Department had had a Team Builder and then, instead of going back to work, I stopped at a local bookstore close to the restaurant we had had lunch at.

I love looking at books especially literature and especially gay literature so I went searching for the gay section and, when I finally found it, spotted a young man, probably a teenager, nervously looking around while scanning what I assumed to be a gay book.

I changed direction.  I figured it had probably taken that kid a lot to work up the courage to do what he was doing and I didn't want my presence unnerving him.

That kid was on my mind while I read about the 13 celebrities rumored to be gay that came out afterwards.

And I had mixed feelings.  On one hand, I was glad that gay kids today get to read about celebrities coming out because, when I was a kid, I didn't know a single out gay person; celebrity or non-celebrity.  On the other hand, it saddens me that gay kids still have to work up the courage to take that first step.  That first step that usually often involves something so simple as opening a gay book at a local bookstore but carries so much emotion because it is so life changing.

I thought about Tom Cruise and Queen Latifah and all the other still rumored ones.  But what about the rest of us - the non-celebrities?  If we all came out, wouldn't the hinges be blown right off the closet door?  And wouldn't this latest generation be the last to have to muster up the courage to step out of the darkness that is the closet.

I feel that we aren't doing enough.  I know it will get better for them if they make it through those first tough years but I want it to get better for gay teens now.

We should have a Team Builder to make this a better world for gay kids.  What can we do?