Pagan Coming Out Day -- May 2nd

I came out of the broom closet when I was a junior in high school. Even though I lived in the Bible Belt of Kentucky it never occurred to me NOT to come out, and I never really thought of it as "coming out".  To me it was just being who I was.  This is not tooting my own horn as being brave or anything; if anything it is showing just how naive I was.  I could have endured horrible consequences like loss of friends, tauntings, bullying, etc.  I was lucky that I had a good core group of friends, many of whom were Christian, and most people just blew it off as some weird quirk of mine. 

I guess you would have to understand who I was in high school to understand this last part.  I knew the names of each person in our graduating class, all 275 of us.  I was in AP classes and had all academics the first 3 years of high school, leaving my senior year filled with art electives.  I got along with almost everyone. My boyfriend and I were also kinda infamous for PDA's as well...we even made it into the school paper in the form of a editorial cartoon because of it.  I was not a typical student, let's just say.

Two of my boyfriend's friends were following the Druid path, Josh and Michael.  I have lost touch with Josh, but am still in contact with Michael and I respect him a great deal.  We all had some great debates about spirituality.  But other than these few I was alone on my path.  I do not know if there were more Pagans in my high school that were afraid to come out, or if we really were the only ones.  I would have liked to have an SPA (student pagan association) but that was not to be.  Maybe had I been more mature I could have started one, but that just wasn't me back then.

Tomorrow, May 2nd, is Pagan Coming Out Day.  If you are in the broom closet or out, or just a Pagan supporter, please keep those coming out in your minds as they take this large step.  The color for Pagan Pride is deep purple, so if you have clothing, jewelry, or even a ribbon, please wear it in honor of our brothers and sisters.  Let them know it is perfectly fine to be themselves...