The Allies Club celebrated National Coming Out Day ’09 in style Thursday afternoon by giving away T-shirts and refreshments in Murray Herrick Center. Students were able to decorate T-shirts that read “color your perspective” with a host of different T-shirt paints while they enjoyed cookies, cider and candy provided by the club.

Junior Nick Kor, president of Allies, said the event was a success. Only a few of the original 350 shirts were left. The Allies Club supports gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and is trying to raise awareness of the GLBT community and issues it faces.

“The T-shirts say it all,” Kor said, “’Color your perspective’ – we’re just asking students to be themselves.”

National Coming Out Day is a week-long event held across the nation to commemorate the first march on Washington, D.C., on Oct. 11, 1987, by GLBT people to highlight the struggle for acceptance the GLBT community faces. The first National Coming Out Day was celebrated the following year.

Aaron Hays can be reached at hays2206@stthomas.edu