| Compiled by GayToday
 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania--Various celebrations took place across the nation yesterday
to mark the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's 12th annual National Coming
Out Day, with the goal of mobilizing thousands of gay, lesbian, bisexual
and transgendered Americans to vote in the upcoming elections.
"With the U.S. presidency, Supreme Court, House and Senate hanging
in the balance, this could be the most important National Coming Out Day
ever," said HRC Foundation's National Coming Out Project Manager Candace
J. Gingrich.
"Our community is a crucial voting bloc that has the power to turn
the tide in close races," said Gingrich. "Each person who comes out
increases our ability to influence elections, and so today's events are
crucial to mobilizing the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered vote."
The gay, lesbian and bisexual vote is nearly as large as the Latino
vote and larger than the Jewish and Asian vote. In 1996, the last
presidential election year, a Voter News Service exit poll showed the gay,
lesbian and bisexual electorate represented 5 percent of all voters.
| This
sizable voting bloc along with the votes of friends and family
members— which altogetheradds up to a force much greater than the
gay vote alone— creates a powerful constituency, according to HRC.
To help rally GLBT voters at NCOP events, HRC sent local
organizers over 400 NCOD kits, which included thousands of balloons,
posters, stickers, buttons and media training guides. HRC also
distributed 10,000 Resource Guides to Coming Out, to help people who
are coming out to friends or family members.
To kick-off National Coming Out Day, HRC Executive Director
Elizabeth Birch joined Gingrich yesterday at the University of
Pennsylvania, where a gay couple made history by announcing their $2
million contribution to their alma mater for a gay and lesbian
services center. |
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The gift from retired Microsoft executive David Goodhand and life
partner Vincent Griski, a former Wall Street financial analyst, will go
towards renovating Carriage House, a historic campus structure. It will
house the university's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Center--one
of the oldest and most active higher ed centers.
The couple's gift is the first and largest of its kind to directly
benefit an LGBT campus community, and it officially kicks off a $5 million
fund-raising campaign to complete the center's construction and to endow
its programs.
"We applaud the history-making gift to University of Pennsylvania
that will greatly contribute to people coming out and help educate people
on gay issues," said Gingrich.
"The ceremony in Philadelphia is one of hundreds of events
happening all over country on campus, in the workplace and in communities
that will lead to a better world for gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgendered people."
National Coming Out Day was founded in 1988, and has come under the
auspices of the HRC Foundation since 1993. It has blossomed into an event
that is celebrated in cities, states, businesses, schools and houses of
worship throughout the country.
National Coming Out: NCOP@HRC.org.
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