Spring Break
The Daily OrangeStudents come together to share coming out stories
By Rebecca Toback
Posted: 10/13/09, 3:03 AM EST Section: News
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Collato and her mother were really close. They told each other everything. When she turned 16 and started dating a girl, she knew she had to tell her mom.
"I thought I could tell my mom anything," said Collato, a sophomore communications and rhetorical studies and Spanish major. "So two days after I started dating my first girlfriend, I sat my mom down, and I started crying.
"She was looking at me like something wasn't right and I said, 'Mom, I'm a lesbian. I don't like guys, I never have.'"
It was OK, Collato's mother said at the time, she would always love her.
But two weeks later, after Collato continued talking about her girlfriend, her mother stopped talking to her.
Ten other students joined Collato in sharing their coming-out stories Monday night in the Nifkin Lounge in Marshall Hall at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. The event was one of several hosted by Syracuse University's LGBT Resource Center for Coming Out Month, held each October.
After the students shared their stories, they walked to the Quad and drew chalks messages supporting LGBT rights on the sidewalks.
In the Nifkin Lounge, the stories the students recounted were emotional - many touched on how the event affected their families.
Chris Wakefield, a senior sociology major, worked hard to keep his sexuality from his parents for a long time, he told the group in the Nifkin Lounge.
"Originally when I began to struggle with who I was, I went to my school counselor," he said. "After my second session with the counselor I started to feel better. I was scared but feeling better."
A few days later, Wakefield was called out of class and into the school psychologist's office. The counselor he'd spoken to was there, and Wakefield learned the school had called his parents and told them to come in.
When he got there, they were sitting in the advisory office waiting for him to tell his parents that he was gay.
"I told the counselor and the psychologist that there was no way they could get me to talk about this. They told me if I didn't tell my parents they would do it for me, which they did," he said.
"I cried, they cried, we all cried, a lot."
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