GALLERY

glendaleOUT is a multi-venue intergenerational LGBTQIA-based show that will do two things:

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• Announce to Glendale its queer population exists, is visible, is viable, and is part of Glendale’s narrative.

• Share with Glendale and each other the stories of our coming out – either to ourselves, to our friends, to our families, in our schools, at our jobs, or any other way/place/moment we’ve arrived into our queer selves.

 

“Coming out” isn’t just an announcement. It’s a statement that we deserve public space and recognition. It's the culmination of journey. For some this is an easy, funny, or celebrated event. For others, the journey goes from realization, to fear and dread, to considerations and options, and finally to proclamation. It's a measuring of something about ourselves we fear so primally unacceptable to some that it could end us, end everything we know as we know it -- our parents' love for us, the world's response to us, our friends' effort for us. It is the passage through fire and fear to self. "Coming out" is the moment we declare. 

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Some find ambivalence, others find their worst fears realized, still others discover love and celebration. We, LGBTQIA people, experience risk to live our lives as we are. When we take the risk of living self, we don't know how claiming our identity publicly will affect us and those around us. This is the story of arriving at ourselves: the risk, freedom, and joy of Coming Out.

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glendaleOUT hosted several public programs parallel to the exhibition:

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• glendaleIN: an intergenerational conversation around themes of LGBTQ life in Glendale

• homo-centric: the LGBTQ reading series –  stories about coming out

• “Qreatures: The w(H)ole Story” – a special performance evening featuring Jason Jenn, The Boyfriend, and others