It’s National Coming Out Day! The story behind two local spots supporting LGBTQ youth
Oct. 11 is National Coming Out Day, so we decided to come out of or normal studio to record this week’s CharlotteFive Podcast.
We visited Time Out Youth Monday to talk to Executive Director Rodney Tucker and Campus Pride Executive Director Shane Windmeyer about the LGBTQ community in Charlotte and the great work their two organizations are doing in the city, the surrounding areas and around the country.
The Time Out Youth Center, celebrating its 25th year, offers support, advocacy, and opportunities for personal development and social interaction to LGBTQ youth in a safe space at its facility on North Davidson Street.
Campus Pride started in Charlotte in 2001 and is a national organization that develops necessary resources, programs and services to support LGBTQ and ally students on college campuses across the United States.
Following the passage of House Bill 2 (and the nondiscrimination ordinance that preceded it), Charlotte and North Carolina have been at the center of a national discussion on LGBTQ rights. Tucker and Windmeyer discussed how the law and the rhetoric around it has affected their work, and affected the youth that they work with on a daily basis.
We also talked to them about what it’s like working for LGBTQ organizations in a Southern city, how their work has changed in recent years, and the significance of National Coming Out Day.
“I think the significance of National Coming Out Day comes down to the fact that it’s still needed,” Windmeyer said. “I think that there’s a lot of folks out there who think, well, gay people are out, right? We’ve seen gay people, we’ve heard of gay people, they’re on TV, right? Well, we still need to come out. We still need to be visible. It’s an act that is still relevant today.”
We devoted the entire show this week to our conversation with Tucker and Windmeyer, and we hope you enjoy it. Special thanks to the folks at Time Out Youth for allowing us to record in their space this week.
The CharlotteFive Podcast — presented by The Charlotte Observer and powered by OrthoCarolina — is a weekly podcast that aims to get you Charlotte Smart, Fast with fun, interesting and useful news about the city. It’s hosted by Corey Inscoe and Sarah Crosland.
You can find The CharlotteFive Podcast on Soundcloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher. You can follow us on Twitter @Charlotte_Five, on Instagram @cltfive, and on Facebook, and you can shoot us an email to charlottefive@charlottefive.com.
Photos: Charlotte Observer file; Richard Brooke
This story was originally published October 10, 2016 at 10:16 PM with the headline "It’s National Coming Out Day! The story behind two local spots supporting LGBTQ youth."