Equality Everywhere: Coming Out in the Digital Age

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By Matt Petronzio2013-09-25 00:25:47 UTC

Digital and social media can turn the very personal journey of coming out into a very public process. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter provide platforms for LGBT youth to tell their stories, contributing to the global conversation on sexuality and equality.

However, being thrust into the spotlight can have ramifications, making youth susceptible to cyberbullying and politicization. Award-winning journalist Sarah Kramer and Andre Banks, co-founder and director of All Out, discussed the balance between the positive and negative at the Social Good Summit.

In May 2011, Kramer published a series of narrative videos and photos called Coming Out in The New York Times. It showcased the experiences, struggles and realities of youth coming out in the U.S., and it prompted other LGBT teens to share their own stories and have their experiences be part of that conversation.

Social media, Kramer said, was at the helm of it.

"Everybody would tweet out their own stories and people would see it — the way in which they came out to family, friends. And it just kept creating ripples and waves," she said. Over two years later, Coming Out is still shared widely.

Digital media definitely allows for a large number of people to connect on a specific cause. All Out, an alliance that started with only 100 members, now has 1.8 million LGBT and straight people around the world committed to gay rights and equality.

"In 76 countries, it's a crime to be gay. In 10, it can cost you your life. In no country in the world do LGBT people have the same rights as straight people," Banks said.

When he and his colleagues started All Out two years ago, they looked at this problem and had a central belief: If given a chance, and if given the tools, people around the world would stand up for gay rights, which he described as "one of the last great human rights issues to really get attention on the world stage," he said.

"We found that whether it's signing a petition, making a phone call, getting out in the streets — there is nothing people won't do to stand up for equality around the world."

All Out works with partner organizations with teams that are literally risking their lives for gay rights. They are often faced with a very frank conversation about what it means to have a campaign that millions of people will see, and if it can do more harm than good.

An activist in Cameroon, where LGBT people are rounded up and thrown in jail for being gay, told Banks that such exposure is necessary. "I've already committed my life to doing this," she told him. "I've already made myself public, and what's going to protect me the most is letting the world know that there are millions of people behind me who make it more difficult for me to be disappeared."

Banks explained that the world is currently going in two directions on this issue — one half of the world is trending toward greater equality, while the other withholds human rights from the LGBT community. This, according to Banks, is an active argument at the U.N. that will be happening during the U.N. General Assembly Week in closed-door meetings.

"Everyone deserves the right to live as they choose, to love themselves and to love whoever they want to be with," he said.

When Banks and Kramer look at 2030, they see a different world than the one that we live in now.

"So many more people have the ability to tell their stories and get their stories out there, so there's a democratization happening out there, which is going to change where things go and what dialogues are really possible for us," Kramer said.

Banks added that LGBT labels are shifting with the inflections of different cultures, and we're Learning from each other in different countries about the questions of sexuality and love

"By 2030, we may have a whole new vocabulary around those questions," he said.

About Social Good Summit

The Social Good Summit is where big ideas meet new media to create innovative solutions and is brought to you by Mashable, The 92nd Street Y, The United Nations Foundation, The United Nations Development Programme, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Ericsson. Held during U.N. Week, the Social Good Summit unites a dynamic community of global leaders to discuss a big idea: the power of innovative thinking and technology to solve our greatest challenges.

Date: Sept. 22 through Sept. 24

Time: 12 to 6 p.m. each day

Location: 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave., New York, N.Y.

Tickets are sold-out, but tune into the Livestream.